Introducing Martin Alder

  I am the new Wokingham Borough Council Executive member for Active Transport, Travel and Highways. I am the replacement for Councillor Paul Fishwick, who sadly passed away recently after a short illness. Paul had an encyclopaedic knowledge of his area of responsibility. His professional career as a Highways Officer at Surrey County Council stood him in good stead when he took on this role at WBC. The borough has benefitted greatly from the changes and innovations he implemented. The impact of the enormous national underfunding of road repairs of some £16 billion pounds that built up during the last fourteen years, which affected Wokingham and other Authorities has been enormous. However, Paul managed to achieve impressive results. Wokingham resurfaced almost twice the national average percentage of its roads. This has been achieved by careful use of new techniques which have saved considerable expense. Techniques such as using pre-emptive sealing techniques as method of preventing road surface deterioration. His enthusiasm for encouraging active travel and the benefits that it brings, was equally contagious. 

In contrast, my background is in civil aviation. It started way back in the late 60’s, in Air Traffic Control at Heathrow and West Drayton. I changed career to flying in the late 1970’s, firstly flying corporate jets and then airliners for the remainder of my airline career. Since I retired from airline flying, I have teaching pilots how to fly the A320, but using simulators. I was fortunate to be involved in technical and safety matters at my employer, the regulators, the United Kingdom Civil Aviation Authority and internationally at the European Aviation Safety Agency and the International Civil Aviation Organisation.  

When I was the captain of an airliner, I relied on a team of specialists for support. Now I have a new team of professionals and look forward to working with them on the multitude of things that land in my e-mail inbox. My job is to provide political direction, leadership and support to the team,so they can deliver the best achievable outcomes for the “ customers” and WBC. 

For example, when carrying out construction, things do not always go to plan, especially if dealing with old infrastructure, such as roads. These can be poorly built, and maybe with unknown bits of other infrastructure lying underneath. This causes delays, as sometimes serious issues need to get resolved before progress can resume. In cases like this and others when things don’t go as planned, I will be working with the team to resolve any issues as soon as possible. There will be time to investigate why things went wrong later. As in aviation, the primary focus of investigation should be on how to prevent a recurrence, rather than laying blame. In aviation safety is a huge driver, but safer flying is also cheaper flying. The same principle applies in my new domain. So, whatever we do it is to enable, or provide the lowest possible risk to all involved, both in construction as well as end users, at the best value for money based on the resources available. 

I cannot hope to match Paul’s technical knowledge, but I am determined to carry on his good work. I will work as constructively and cooperatively as he did with everyone, other councillors, council officers, and members of the public.

Martin Alder is ward member for Twyford, Ruscombe and Hurst.