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Authority record
Person · 29 March 1931 - 1 May 2022

Simon Brooks joined the family business, Brooks Service Group (formerly Brooks Dye Works Limited) as company secretary in October 1956, and was appointed a director in January 1961. He was chair and managing director from April 1973 to March 1991, and then held the post of chair until he retired in 2001.

Brooks became a trustee of the Clifton Suspension Bridge Trust in 1983. From 1985 he chaired the Investment Committee and then in 1991 he was Chairman of the Trust for 10 years. He left in 2003.

He was instrumental in several areas:

• Reviewing the age of retirement of trustees, set up of sub-committees and succession planning
• Promoting the history of the bridge – involved in investigating potential of a museum, the 1986 Act and also overseeing the establishment of the first Visitor Centre in 1997 and move towards a permanent Visitor Centre, approving the conservation of archival documents (it seems he also was involved with ssGB Trust)
• 1992 Existalite Guide Lite lighting scheme
• Safety barriers on bridge (1996-1998)
• New maintenance gantry (1998)
• Development of garden areas near bridge and lookout point with CHIS (1990s)
• Environmental Improvement Scheme – re-paving and improving the approaches, drainage and landscaping (2001-2002)