Congratulations to young civil engineers from Pick Everard in Bury St Edmunds office who last night won the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) East of England Communications Competition. For the second year I was invited to be one of the judges and we were unanimous in our decision. We were impressed with their presentation of an eco village designed to meet housing needs in a sustainable way and their project included treating waste water and harvesting rainwater, collecting organic waste and turning it into biogas, and generating energy via a combined heat and power plant and photovoltaic panels.

They received £250 and will represent the region in the South of England semi-final battling for a place in the International Papers Competition in June. I wish them every success.

Teams also had to prepare a consultation leaflet and answer rigorous questions from the audience. As well as planning our future eco developments, one of the teams prepared plans for a docks regeneration scheme. These were all realistic challenges which they can apply to their working life. Standing up in front of an audience to face their scrutiny during public consultation is an important part of any planning process which they able to simulate last night. I was able to advise them on the importance of public speaking and presentation skills which I have developed as a member of Cambridge Toastmasters, especially as 70% of their marks were awarded for their presentation.  For example, it’s very impressive if you don’t read verbatim from notes when making a presentation on a topic you should know inside out.

The runners up were a team from Amey in Bedford and Pell Frischmann in Bishop’s Stortford. It’s reassuring to know that we have so many impressive young civil engineers in the region; shame there was only female included in the teams.