Market Engagement for Active Travel Initiatives Programme 2021 - 2025

ESCC are inviting interested organisations to attend a market engagement event on 30 March from 11.30-12.30 to discuss our outline requirements and procurement timeline ahead of the tender being published in early April 2021.Please contact the council via the email address given to register interest in attending the virtual event via MS Teams.The COVID-19 pandemic has also had huge impact on the way people work, socialise and, ultimately, travel. For some people and organisations this has meant that they have been able to re-think about how they travel and cycling and walking has become more of an option.Following the East Sussex Active Access for Growth programme which comprised walking and cycling initiatives being delivered in the county there are further opportunities to allocate and apply for funding from the DFT to deliver similar initiatives for walking and cycling programmes. A new Active Travel Initiatives Programme is being developed to deliver initiatives which will ‘Help people to cycle and walk to live better’. It will be funded through a number of revenue funding sources, predominantly the Government’s recently announced Capability Fund, and will run for a period of up to five years from 2021-2025. The initial contract term is for one year (2021-22), but this could be extended for the following three years as further funding becomes available.The key objectives of the programme will be to support: -economic recovery and the levelling up of local areas,health & wellbeing ,net zero carbon emissions, andgreater linkages between infrastructure & initiatives.To deliver these objectives we will be entering into a contract to deliver active travel engagement projects. The requirement will be split into 3 Lots:Lot 1 – Active Travel Projects (with an emphasis on cycling)Lot 2 – Active Travel Projects (with an emphasis on walking)Lot 3 – Programme Management (including developing and managing monitoring and evaluation framework, and developing and delivering a Communications Plan)There will be a requirement for bidders to make Social Value commitments as part of the tender submission.