Independent Active Travel Commissioner (Consultant - Outside IR35) – York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority

The Mayor of the Combined Authority has big ambitions for Active Travel across York and North Yorkshire, and we are looking to engage an independent consultant to deliver a commissioned piece of work to achieve a step change in active travel ambitions for the region.

The Independent Active Travel Commissioner will:

• Be an expert adviser and help the Mayor and the Combined Authority to raise our profile in respect of Active Travel, advocating for new initiatives and improving our chances of attracting funding from Government and Active Travel England. The IATC will need to tailor their approach to reflect the largely rural nature of our geography.
• Form strategic partnerships, raise the profile and influence partners, encouraging our local highway authorities to commit to active travel schemes and deliver consistent good practice.  A crucial objective of the IATC is to facilitate an improvement to Active Travel England’s ratings for both City of York Council and North Yorkshire Council.

The IATC will work up to two days per week for the Combined Authority for an initial term of one year (September 2025 to August 2026).  During this one year term the IATC will establish and enact a detailed plan for:

• Engaging with local highway authorities and other delivery partners on active travel issues;
• Improving the level of investment and the quality of investment in active travel interventions across the whole YNY area, including the deployment of the Mayor’s Active Travel Fund (MATF);
• Developing a clear and practical plan for ensuring that Active Travel England increase their delivery rating for both local highway authorities in the YNYCA area; and
• Setting out a future work programme and delivery options for work beyond the 12 month programme to ensure the profile and approach to Active Travel is delivered for the rest of the Mayor’s term (up to May 2028), building on this establishing work and continuing to advocate for high quality active travel investment.

Requirements:

In order to perform the programme set out above, we require the IATC to be an experienced active travel practitioner with demonstrable skills in raising the profile of active travel in an urban and rural setting and engaging with stakeholders to encourage more active travel use through better quality active travel investment.  We are particularly keen to ensure that the programme has a clear focus on the long term behavioural, lifestyle changes to ensure outcomes are sustainable and deep rooted.

Deliverables:

The Independent Active Travel Consultant will deliver:

• An inception report that sets out the work programme for the one year appointment, developing the work programme and establishing practical and affordable actions to deliver the scope of the role.
• An engagement report that sets out how the IATC has engaged with key partners and established the IATC’s role as part of their delivery programme for active travel interventions.
• An active travel strategy that sets out how active travel investment should be framed in different parts of the YNYCA area, alongside a series of practical actions to improve the quality of interventions and increase the level of funding available.
• An active travel design guide that sets out practical guidance for implementing active travel interventions across the YNYCA geography;
• An ATE Action Plan that sets out how the local highways authorities (LHAs) will improve their Active Travel England delivery ratings; and
• Provide professional advice and guidance to the Mayor and YNYCA and build the profile of Active Travel in York and North Yorkshire.

It is envisaged that in order to deliver the programme attendance in person at strategic meetings will be required at York/Northallerton, otherwise the programme can be delivered at place/time at the consultant’s discretion. The consultant will provide their own materials and cover all expenses within the programme fee.

The Milestones:

The milestones for this work, which will be confirmed during the inception phase of the IATC’s work, are:

1. An inception report within first four weeks of the programme.
2. An engagement report within first ten weeks of the programme.
3. An active travel strategy within first 26 weeks of the programme.
4. An active travel design guide within first 39 weeks of the programme
5. An ATE Action Plan within first 26 weeks of the programme (or within the timescales for assessments set by ATE, whichever is sooner).
6. We require that improvement in the ATE ratings for both LHAs will be delivered by the end of the one year programme. The current rating of 1 will be uplifted to at least 2 for both authorities.
7. We require professional advice, guidance and profile building of active travel through the 12 month programme.

The outputs will meet the quality standard approved by YNYCA’s Chief Executive, with any re-work completed by the IATC to meet the required standard at no additional cost to YNYCA.

The Contract:

The contractor appointed will act on an independent self-employed basis, under a consultancy service contract (outside of IR35), the consultant will be responsible for their own tax and statutory fee’s and will have appropriate insurance and indemnities and will be responsible for delivering the outcomes and milestones within the project budget of up to £60k.

Contact and Apply

To apply, the consultant must submit an application including:

• A statement on why the consultant is suitable for the project
• A track record of the consultant, displaying credibility and impact in Active Travel
• An outline of the consultant’s key achievements in Active Travel
• Client references to verify achievements in Active Travel

The application should be in one word document (no PDF’s), and submitted to Katherine.Brioude@northyorks.gov.uk

Key Dates:

 Closing Date: Wednesday 17^th September at midday

Pitch Date: Monday 22^nd September