The County Surveyors' Society was established officially at a meeting of eleven county surveyors for
England on 19 November 1885.
It was a
society for people working in
local government in highways departments in senior positions known as
county surveyors.
Over time most authorities stopped using the term 'county surveyor', but both the society and the magazine who support them,
''Surveyor'' magazine, opted to retain the title, although the society has since been subsumed (see reference to ADEPT below).
The first meeting, and many other early meetings, were concerned with conditions of service of surveyors, mainly pay and hours of work. However, by 1890 the
society had become increasingly involved with such matters as the rolling and watering of carriageways and repairs to footways.
The
Development and Road Improvement Funds Act 1909
Development or developing may refer to:
Arts
*Development hell, when a project is stuck in development
*Filmmaking, development phase, including finance and budgeting
*Development (music), the process thematic material is reshaped
*Photographi ...
created a
Roads Board, which later became the
Department for Transport
The Department for Transport (DfT) is a department of His Majesty's Government responsible for the English transport network and a limited number of transport matters in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland that have not been devolved. The d ...
with powers to give grants to highway authorities (local authorities) to construct and maintain roads. Many meetings of the society at that time were concerned with these grants, attempting to ensure an even spread of money around
England and
Wales.
A Society of County Surveyors for
Scotland was formed in 1931, although this was an extension of the earlier
Association of Road Surveyors of Scotland founded in 1884, a year earlier than its English counterpart. In June 1937 it was agreed that they should join with their English and Welsh counterparts.
In 1937 a society delegation visited
Germany and subsequently set out proposals in 1938 for a national motorway network, having been impressed with the work carried out by the then
Nazi Government.
In 1955 with
rationing that had hung over
Great Britain since the end of
World War II saw the end of the lean years of highway funding with the beginning of the motorway era, during which time the UK was transformed from a series of country lanes to having major 'A' routes and
motorways, eventually including the
M25.
Following the publication of the
Buchanan Report
''Traffic in Towns'' was an influential report and popular book on urban and transport planning policy published 25 November 1963 for the UK Ministry of Transport by a team headed by the architect, civil engineer and planner Colin Buchanan. ...
in 1964, county surveyors became increasingly involved in transportation studies, traffic management and road safety, in addition to the existing work on road maintenance and new road construction.
The 1970s saw the start of the greatest road building programme since the days of the Turnpikes and also a major change in the structure of local authorities. The Society played a significant part in these changes and was accepted as a principal channel for initiatives and advice.
The 1974 reorganisation of
local government added waste disposal to county surveyors' responsibilities. At the same time Surveyors of the Counties in Northern Ireland became part of the Department of the Environment, but in 1992 a
Northern Ireland branch was formed which became part of the main society.
Campaign for Safe Road Design
In July 2008, now using the shorter name CSS, the society remained a partner in the
Campaign for Safe Road Design
The Campaign for Safe Road Design is a partnership between 13 UK major road safety stakeholders that is calling for the UK Government to invest in a safe road infrastructure which in their view could cut deaths on British roads by 33%.
Aims
The k ...
which was calling on the UK government to make safe road design a national transport priority.
Since then, CSS has been subsumed by ADEPT, the Association of Directors of Environment, Economy, Planning and Transport.
ADEPT
CSS changed its name to the Association of Directors of Environment, Economy, Planning & Transport (ADEPT) as a result of expansions in the responsibilities of the local government officers who were its members. The term 'county surveyor' had by then fallen from use.
References
{{Reflist
External links
* http://www.adeptnet.org.uk/
* https://web.archive.org/web/20141017042509/http://www.highwaysmaintenance.com/
Transport in the United Kingdom
1885 establishments in the United Kingdom
Organizations established in 1885
Professional associations based in the United Kingdom