Driving Safe Digging in the UK
RICHARD BROOME WAS INSTRUMENTAL IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF LINESEARCH BEFOREUDIG (LSBUD), A JOINT VENTURE BETWEEN HIS EMPLOYER, FISHER GERMAN LLP, AND PELICANCORP.
As the Managing Director of the online service, Richard has been responsible for the provision of over three million safe digging searches per annum and helps protect over 900,000 km of LSBUD members’ assets including gas, electricity, high pressure oil, water and fiber optic networks. Phil Cornforth, Damage Prevention Specialist UK/EMEA, PelicanCorp, notes, “With no legislation in the UK requiring a utility owner to use a notification service, these numbers represent a phenomenal achievement.” Recently, Richard was instrumental in enabling National Grid and Cadent Gas (two of the biggest asset owners in the UK) to facilitate their record data through the LSBUD website. John Robinson, CEO and Chief Surveyor of John Robinson and Associates, believes, “Richard should be recognized for being the voice of calm, reason, and integrity when dealing with commercially sensitive clients and data.”
Richard, on behalf of LSBUD, attends just about every regional and national exhibition in the UK connected with utilities and land management. He organizes an annual National Damage Prevention Day which is well attended nationally and internationally. His passion for damage prevention in the UK has led to him being invited to speak at international Damage Prevention conferences including the Oceania Damage Prevention Conference, held on the Gold Coast in Australia, and the prestigious Excavation Safety Conference in the USA.
Richard should be recognized for being the voice of calm, reason, and integrity when dealing with commercially sensitive clients and data.”
Richard organizes monthly breakfast meetings where a different expert is showcased to explain their roles, services, products, and experience followed by Q&A sessions. He gives up his own free time to promote damage prevention via trade groups and government initiatives for the good of the industry.
As a member of the Utility Strike Avoidance Group’s Steering Group, he promotes collaborated learning on utility strikes across the UK and innovative solutions to promote excavation safety. Richard has been the driving force behind USAG’s biannual Utility Strike Damages Report. This important document is the only reliable source of third-party damage data in the UK.
A fully qualified RICS Chartered Surveyor, CAAV Ag ricultural Valuer & APC Assessor, Richard provides consistent delivery of high-quality land agency management and maintenance services in the utilities and infrastructure sector through various roles.
Richard contributes heavily to LSBUD’s annual Digging Up Britain Report and is a valued contributor to dp-PRO and other utility press, writing on safe digging, asset protection, and constructively challenging government to better support the UK’s damage prevention efforts.
Richard has given his time to join working groups, writing and re-writing PAS128 (the British Standard for specification for underground utility detection, verification, and location) and PAS256 (the British Standard code of practice for capturing, recording, maintaining, and sharing location information and data for buried assets).
According to Jack Quinney, Sr Account Executive, Energy PR, “Richard lives and breathes the subject [of damage prevention]. When I first heard him describe LSBUD he said, ‘We do the right thing, even when no one is watching.’ Five years on and these words are still the firm basis on which he runs LSBUD, protecting people and assets from third-party damage.”
Richard Broome definitely deserves the title of Damage Prevention Hero.