Highways Fellowship Award: Peter Dipper - the legend

George Barker speaks to Peter Dipper, former president of the Institute of Highways Engineers (IHE), about his recent win of the Highways Fellowship Award at the inaugural Highways Champions Awards.

Peter Dipper has dedicated his life to highways, and as far as he is concerned, it was a privilege to have done so. Well, Highways would like to say the privilege was all ours, Mr Dipper, and that's why your colleagues and friends have made you one of the first highways industry Fellows.

‘It's an honour,' he explains. ‘The team is vast, I suppose, in a way, because it's the Institute. I've been a member of the Institute for, well, since the 1960s. I've been a member of branch committees, national committees, councils, et cetera, several times over the years.

‘So [the award represents] all of those things that the institute means and that I've hopefully helped to further and to have helped other people to pursue their journey through professional qualification.'

It is that professional qualification and registration that stands out most to Mr Dipper. As he puts it, his proudest achievement is ‘the fact that so many people have achieved registration with the Engineering Council through the efforts of my professional body and their own efforts.' 

He makes it clear that this work must continue, which is why he highlights the IHE's efforts: ‘I think it's important that we have people who are professionally qualified, professionally recognised and I think the public want to know that people who are maintaining and building their highways are professionally qualified and professionally competent to do the job.'

Mr Dipper concluded by thanking those who have supported him in both his career and nomination for the award. 

‘I'd like to thank the staff and members and council members of the institute themselves who've put me forward, which was something of a surprise when they mentioned it to me in the first place.'

It may have been a surprise for Mr Dipper, but for those who have worked with him all those years, clearly it was a long time coming.