th Issue 361 Week ending: 6 September 2002 Attention - All Staff! Bob McGowan From Geoff French Bob McGowan retired last week after a long and distinguished career, most of which he spent with Scott Wilson. Bob graduated from the University of Strathclyde in 1960 and more than half of his career since than has been as a Partner and Director of Scott Wilson – a remarkable record. After an initial period in contracting which took him to Zambia, London and Canada Bob joined Scott Wilson in 1967. He than worked in Glasgow and Nairobi before moving to Basingstoke in 1994 and becoming Chairman of Scott Wilson in 1998. Bob’s career with Scott Wilson has included a wide range of projects in the UK and overseas. In and around Glasgow there are many projects for which he has been responsible including the Renfrew Motorway Stage I, Townhead Interchange Stage II, Ayr Motorway Stage I, Dumbreck Road Connection and structural investigations on the problems of the Kingston Bridge. He was also responsible for the design of some 50 new bridges for Abuja, the new capital city of Nigeria and for viaduct and elevated ramp designs for Tuen Mun New Town in Hong Kong. Bob’s period in charge of the Glasgow Office saw him being responsible also for a large number of projects including a section of the new M74, a two year planning study for Rosyth Naval Base, a feasibility study for a new railway in Scotland and an 85 metre prestressed concrete canal aqueduct. Since moving to Basingstoke Bob has concentrated primarily on corporate issues. Bob has held a number of senior positions with professional associations. He was Chairman of the ICE Glasgow and West of Scotland Association in 1991-92, a member of the ICE Council from 1992 to 1995. He was a member of the Editorial Board of NCE from 1983 to 1986 and again from 1992 to 1995. Bob was Honorary Secretary of the ACE, Scottish Group from 1987 to 1994 and a Council Member and Chairman of the Scottish Branch of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators from 1993 to 1995. Dinners have been held for Bob and Mavis McGowan in both Glasgow and Basingstoke at which the continuing development of Scott Wilson over the period of Bob’s career has been noted. In 1967 we had only two offices in the UK and around 600 staff worldwide. By 1981 when he first became a Partner we had three offices in the UK and just over 1000 staff with 80-90% of our work overseas. Today we have around 2800 staff worldwide and offices in 25 towns and cities in the UK alone. Whilst Bob is happy to acknowledge that this growth was the result of a significant team effort it does remain a great record for him to look back on. You are likely to see Bob around the Basingstoke office for some time yet as he will be continuing to assist us on a number of fee earning projects. We all wish Bob and Mavis a very long and happy retirement. _____________________________________________________________ Titles From Geoff French Following Bob McGowan’s retirement and the restructuring of the International Board the titles to be used are as follows:- Geoff French Group Chairman Bob McKittrick CEO Europe Simon Davies CEO Asia-Pacific Martin Kwong International Director, Chairman Hong Kong ____________________________________________________________________________________________ This is a Scott Wilson Holdings publication distributed to all staff in the operating, associated and subsidiary companies in the UK and Europe. It is not for outside circulation. 1 Pelham Allen International Director Accident & Incident Reporting What you consider to be a minor injury or incident could From Dave Sutton [R, Swindon] under slightly different circumstances have been much more serious, hence it is not easy to define exactly which accidents Scott Wilson staff were recently involved in a safety incident and incidents must be reported. Nevertheless you have a on Railtrack property whilst working close to the line. Scott duty to report accidents and incidents. Failure to report a Wilson staff who regularly work on the track will be briefed serious incident could lead to disciplinary action, especially on the details to prevent a recurrence. However, this is a when reports are received from third parties concerning Scott good opportunity to remind everyone of our policy regarding Wilson staff that have not been previously notified accidents and incidents. internally. There are sound legal, moral and financial reasons for Whilst a degree of common sense should always be applied, ensuring that all accidents and incidents at work are the rule is – if in doubt seek advice from your H&S Manager. investigated and reported. Legislation requires certain types of accidents to be reported to the HSE (with fines if you _______________________ don’t) and morally, we have a duty to find out what caused an incident to prevent it happening again. Furthermore, it is now well proven that safety conscious companies, in the The Renaissance of Glasgow as Centre of Railway long term, are the most profitable. In addition, some clients Engineering like Railtrack have strict rules regarding the reporting of accidents and incidents on their property, which we are obliged to adhere to under the terms of our contracts. “Join SWR if you want an equity card” From the Railways Press Office. If you are injured Keith Wallace [CS, Basingstoke] Firstly, irrespective of where the accident occurred, you must On Monday stars of stage and screen (staff of railways enter the details in your office Accident Book. If you don’t Glasgow) assembled at Stow College to launch our latest know where this is located, ask your H&S Manager. initiative under the “Training the next Generation Banner” to accelerate training and development of our railway staff. Secondly, you must complete an Accident Report Form which can be found in Part 3 of the Group H&S Policy This sees three new modules in railways at Higher National Manual or via the Intranet under SWIMS Structure/SWIMS 7 level being delivered initially on a day release basis, Health & Safety / Accident & Incident Report Form. The representing the culmination of eighteen months of work by form contains details of what to do with it after completion. Hugh Blackwood, Keith Wallace, Willie Burrell and Tim Wood in conjunction with Stow College where Hugh is Incident and Near Misses currently chairman. A classic case of further education and industry in harmony. It is equally important that we investigate non-injury incidents - although no-one was harmed during the recent Following sound advice from our TV contacts we picked a event which occurred close to track, the incident could easily Monday where typically there is less news, and we were have resulted in injury. lucky that it coincided with an English Bank Holiday which, for reasons unknown by us, had the effect of further Purpose of the Investigation reducing the days news. As a result we achieved the following: The primary aim is to find out what happened, which systems failed, if any, and what can be done to prevent it happening i) Three and a half minutes on BBC’s Good Morning again. It is not about pinning the blame on someone! When Scotland Radio show, broadcast live featuring Keith things go wrong, it is often a system failure and not the fault Wallace and Graham Hutchison. of an individual, unless they have been particularly reckless. ii) Three minutes on BBC’s Reporting Scotland early evening news, “The Renaissance of Glasgow as Finally, having an open culture regarding the reporting of Centre of Railway Engineering” featuring Keith accidents and incidents is healthy for all of us and part of this Wallace, Graham Hutchison and Stuart Speirs in the is sharing information with others, you are therefore “talkies”, and Tim Wood and the back of the heads encouraged to discuss accidents or incidents openly at team of a number of our staff in the “silents” among the briefings. 20+ students at the first lecture. ____________________________________________________________________________________________ This is a Scott Wilson Holdings publication distributed to all staff in the operating, associated and subsidiary companies in the UK and Europe. It is not for outside circulation. 2 iii) A large feature in Business AM, a kind of Scottish Financial Times, with Hugh Blackwood, Keith Congratulations! Wallace, Graham Hutchison and Stuart Speirs all featured in a photograph. Norman Evans who has just passed the NEBOSH National Diploma Part 1. which is a Health & Safety qualification Other features were: (Norman is at present seconded to Met Office at Bracknell.) · The realisation that if the camera never lies, Tim Wood Norman did the course privately to support his outside job as must be lying about his age since he looked 20 years Health & Safety younger; must be the fun he was having Co-ordinator for the London Bus Preservation Trust, a · An excellent and passionate introduction by Hugh charitable Blackwood on engineering as a career, which sadly organisation who operate Cobham Bus Museum near ended up on the cutting room floor Brookland and have workshops · Stuart Speirs being asked some very tough questions on there in which the volunteers renovate vintage and veteran recent railway safety incidents, which gladly ended on vehicles related the cutting room floor. to London Transport. He hopes the qualification may benefit Scott Wilson as well. Feedback so far range from complaints from some Scottish residents that they had been put off their breakfast and tea (our part in helping Scotland’s health); a call from Newsnight ____________________________________ Scotland for Keith Wallace to be the studio expert on a debate on West Coast Route Modernisation (Declined due to conflict of interest); and a message that one of Virgin Trains Moves PR Managers cheered when he saw the TV piece.