The Chartered Institution of Highways and Transportation (formerly the Institution of Highways and Transportation) is a UK-based learned society (with worldwide membership) concerned specifically with the planning, design, construction, maintenance and operation of land-based transport systems and infrastructure. With over 14,000 members, the CIHT offers routes to qualifications such as Chartered and Incorporated Engineer status and also Chartered transport planning professional. The CIHT is dedicated to providing support and networking opportunities to members with a calendar of technical seminars and conferences, plus social events. The CIHT has 12 regional UK branches and several overseas branches that all run local events and technical meetings. The CIHT is a board-governed professional body. The main aims of the Council and Boards are to act as the decision-making bodies for the CIHT and deliver the strategy, business plans and outputs on behalf of the membership. The CIHT's Council and Boards were established to deliver the object of the Institution: "to advance for the public benefit the science and art associated with highways and transportation in all their aspects; and to promote education, training, and research and development of the said science and art." The CIHT is a member of the Construction Industry Council. History and chartered status The history of the Institution of Highways and Transportation began in 1930 when it was simply called the Institution of Highway Engineers and more a gentleman's club than a qualifying body. The addition of 'transportation' to the functions of highway engineers emerged from the Buchanan Report, Traffic in Towns. The Institution did not take the name on board until the 1980s, when the Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, repealed local highway authorities' 40-year-old powers of direction over local planning authorities' powers to grant planning permission for property development, threatening the integrated land use, transport, and socio-economic development system that had been created after the Second World War. Later (1992), the UK Government signed Agenda Item 21 of the Rio de Janeiro UN Summit Conference about integrating developmental and environmental considerations in planning, and a road traffic reduction private members bill attained Royal Assent in 1997. This was followed by a rehashing of the statutory development plan system in 2000 and the introduction of composite local service boards into the planning system in 2005 (including police, fire and rescue services, health and ambulance services, education and welfare services, and employment and housing services); planning applicants had to submit 'Access