Agenda item

Steve Presland

The Chairman paid tribute to Steve Presland, who had now retired from the City, although would still be engaged part time leading on mobilizing the City’s new Waste and Cleansing contract. 

The Chairman reported that Steve had worked in several Local Authorites, originally training as an Environmental Health Officer and had also had a stint with Kier in the private sector before coming to the City in 2008. 

The Chairman stated that Steve’s achievements at the City were too numerous to mention, but some highlights included his overseeing of several major contract procurements, including the appointments of our term contractor Rineys and the City’s coordination and delivery of operations for the 2012 Olympics.  The Chairman underlined that this was a highly complex logistical challenge that reflected extremely well on the City and much of what was learned has informed current strategies and practices.

The Chairman went on to report that Steve had overseen transformation of the City’s streets and public spaces including Bloomberg Place, London Wall Place, the areas around Goldman Sachs, and Aldgate Square not to mention many other smaller schemes implemented by the City Public Realm Team.  

It was highlighted that Steve had helped to tackle some of the City’s greatest challenges including engaging with various communities to develop ambitious strategies for transport and freight that will enable the continuing development of the City as a world class Centre for business and culture.  Steve has helped the organisation to learn from the best in the world including visiting New York with the Chairman to meet with their opposite numbers there and share experience. 

Steve’s team are also involved, of course, in every Planning Application that comes before this Committee - it is Steve’s team that assess the transport impacts of development and evaluate the servicing and delivery plans, ensuring that developers mitigate the impacts of their development and negotiating appropriate improvements to the streets and public realm. 

Of course, he has also overseen the delivery of the radical experiment, now permanent scheme at Bank Junction. 

Steve has really understood that we need to collaborate and has developed positive relationships with developers, partners, TfL and elected Members, and most importantly of all, Steve has built and developed a fantastic team of talented, professional and committed people who are a credit to him.

Steve and the team have picked up just about every industry award over the past few years which demonstrates how much the City is at the forefront on issues such as fleet management - leading the industry to develop greener and safer vehicles, innovation in transportation and road danger reduction and the development of the concept of healthy streets in one of the most densely developed business cities in the world.

The Chairman added that the City is always developing and frequently gave awards to those developers who best manage their sites in the safest way, minimizing disruption to our communities.  The Chairman reported that he had had the pleasure of judging these awards and had therefore seen first-hand how well our teams managed and enforced good practice. 

The Chairman concluded by stating that he had personally enjoyed working with Steve - a fantastic colleague, with a great sense of humour, a real commitment to deliver, and a lovely manner. He stated that he hoped that all Members would join him in thanking Steve for all that he has done and to wish him all the very best for his retirement, enjoying more time doing the things he enjoyed most with friends and family. 

Steve took the opportunity to respond to the Chairman’s words of thanks by thanking both he and the Committee for a very challenging but enjoyable time at the City of London Corporation. He added that he was pleased with how much had been achieved during his time at the organisation and highlighted that the Committee were now left with an ambitious Transport Strategy to deliver in terms of further improvements.

Apologies for absence were received from Munsur Ali, Deputy Keith Bottomley, Stuart Fraser, Natasha Maria Cabrera Lloyd-Owen, Judith Pleasance, Graeme Smith and William Upton.