Ethos: We’ll share your journey

Ethos Consultants is working with local authorities across the UK on the development of transport, parking and active travel strategies, say Adam Bunce and Graeme Brown

Ethos is a new name for an established centre of expertise. In 2012 Adam Bunce had a vision to create a company providing traffic engineering, road safety, and parking services, and so he went on to launch 2020 Consultancy. Twelve years later, that business is working on a varied portfolio of projects that span multiple transport sectors, working UK-wide and with clients overseas, delivering the highest level of service and winning industry awards. It is an enviable track record and one which has led to 80% of its clients returning with further projects.

The evolution of the company has seen it renamed as Ethos Consultants.

Working almost exclusively in the public sector, Ethos is helping its clients transform communities and provide a more sustainable future for villages, towns and cities. Many of its local authority clients have had to consider making fundamental changes to the way they operate their road safety, engineering and parking policies, and also consider introducing active travel policies for the good of their communities. Successfully integrating sustainability into those new policies has become a central part of what Ethos does.

Adam Bunce, Managing Director of Ethos, takes overall responsibility for client liaison, project and programme management and operation in the UK, whilst also providing support to Graeme Brown, Ethos’s Regional Director for Scotland. Graeme is based in Aberdeen and joined the Ethos team in May 2023, coming directly from Aberdeen City Council, and with experience of other roles in local authority teams in Scotland.

Graeme says his role at Ethos is a cross between a regional director and a technical lead around parking and sustainability.

Headquartered in Portsmouth but with team members working in offices and remotely across the UK, Ethos has grown a reputation for its high level of expertise, dedication and commitment, often meaning it goes above and beyond what is required from its client briefs.

Adam says: “We are a market leader, but as a smaller operator in the sector, Ethos can sometimes be underestimated. We face, and often win, in competitive tenders against the much larger, global multi-billion-pound companies who aren’t always able to offer the hands-on, senior team involvement that we can.

“Being smaller gives us an edge in terms of flexibility, and our willingness to invest more time in community engagement leads to more robust research outcomes for our clients. We glean greater insight which is essential ahead of undertaking any project. We take pride in our ability to be more thorough and therefore offer added value.”

Enabling infrastructure

In Scotland, the company’s ‘actively engaged’ approach has led to Ethos being involved in several infrastructure projects.

Graeme says: “The larger infrastructure opportunities that have been out to tender over the past couple of decades in Scotland are not currently as active as there is generally less money available for local authorities to spend. I am, however, optimistic about the progress Ethos has made and can continue to make in the coming year, and growing our Scottish portfolio is part of our plan for 2025.”

One Scottish client is Dumfries and Galloway Council, which commissioned Ethos to deliver the Annandale feasibility study and concept design to link Annan, Eastriggs, Gretna and Powfoot through connecting existing walking and cycle paths – a project that was to be funded through Sustrans’ Places for Everyone Programme.

The completed feasibility study, full business case, and concept designs were submitted to Sustrans, who approved the documentation, enabling Ethos to provide support to the council and put together a funding application to progress the project. Following a review the project has been awarded the required funding to enable progression to stages 3 and 4 of the Places for Everyone programme.

Graeme continues: “We’ve recently done a lot more with community groups in Scotland, trying to identify connections between communities, trip generators, increased safe routes to school, trips to work and integration of public transport.”

Sustainability and parking strategy

Ethos has seen the growing need for local authorities to be given guidance in order to approach their parking strategies in a new way. In the past five years many alternative uses for the kerbside have emerged and parking strategies now need to include ways to integrate active or sustainable travel within car parks. Sustainability is increasingly at the core of what Ethos does in terms of consultancy for parking.

Ethos understands that if councils are to be persuaded to give up car parks in central locations, and possibly repurpose them for development opportunities, then they will need to deliver car parks on the outskirts of towns which are effectively mini ‘park and ride’ facilities or mobility hubs.

Graeme explains: “We will tell clients not to worry about how close we are to trip generators – let’s worry instead about how close we are to the wider strategic road network, what improvements can we make to public transport or to active travel, and integrate their strategy that way. Some projects are more sustainability-oriented than others, but we try and take that approach into everything we do – it’s something that we’re all interested in and is part of our core values.”

Councils recognise this need for more sustainable solutions and appreciate how Ethos works to identify what might work best for their own communities, the parking provisions that they need and how to get them on board with the proposals.

Parking strategy has become a bigger part of what Ethos offers its local authority clients with a recent example being work commissioned by Basildon Council.

The importance of relationships

Personalising projects and building relationships are critical to the success Ethos has had to date. They take pride in delivering high service levels and maintaining a good relationship with their clients, and with those communities and stakeholders who are directly impacted by any project they are working on.

Graeme Brown said: “We get to know those communities and they get to know us which builds trust. We then try to maintain our client relationships beyond the close of a project and offer advice or act as a sounding board, always going above and beyond wherever possible.”

Ethos collaborates with other consultants and with technology providers in the parking sector should a project require them to.

Adam Bunce adds: “Our approach is to wholeheartedly buy into what’s trying to be achieved, think about how we can bring a community together, be strong on social value, for example going into schools and working with kids, or working out other ways we can reach demographics – our larger competitors don’t tend to put the same amount of time into this side of things as us.

“A focus purely on growing profit may be more of a motivation in years to come but building relationships with our clients is currently our driving force.”
With a client roster that includes NHS Western Isles, New Forest District Council, the Department of Health and other areas of central government, many boroughs and town councils, city councils, and recently adding the Isle Of Anglesey County Council in North Wales to its list, Ethos has an impressive story to tell and ambitious plans for future growth.

Case study: Basildon – Taking a long view

Basildon Council recently commissioned Ethos to produce its first parking strategy which was a borough-wide 20-year plan, covering both off-street car parks and on-street parking provision. A robust analysis of the current situation in the five town centres across the Essex borough was a vital supporting study.

A two-stage consultation process was undertaken with Stage 1 designed to capture feedback on the existing parking service, and Stage 2, carried out upon completion of the draft parking strategy, designed to capture levels of support for each of the 35 policies developed in line with eight objectives and one overarching strategy vision.

Stakeholder engagement:

• Approximately 5,000 completed surveys were conducted
• Consultation roadshow held at 10 different locations across towns and villages across the borough over a two-week period
• Five ‘hard to reach’ group events held to include elderly and disability forums – approximately 200 attendees across five events
• Three business engagement events attended by approximately 100 business representatives
• School and college visits to provide education of transport services including road safety, parking and active travel, engaging with approximately 300 pupils aged 7-18 years old
• Social media campaign produced approximately 500 interactions across Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube
• A consultation hub to allow stakeholder to provide feedback and comments on maps led to approximately 500 comments.

This comprehensive approach secured Ethos recognition as a finalist in this year’s British Parking Awards, and high praise from their client.

Basildon Council’s Head of Environment James Hendry said: “The thorough approach to engaging with the community was exemplary. The final report was detailed, well-structured, and provided clear recommendations that will greatly inform our strategy planning. The professionalism, responsiveness and dedication demonstrated throughout the project exceeded our expectations.”

Panel - School Streets

Ethos also does a lot of work within schools on road safety education and active travel projects, as well as work around school streets and improving safety outside schools. When working on a school streets project Ethos takes it a step further so that it’s not just about feeling safe near the school, it’s about the entire journey from home to school.

They will go into schools and hold workshops, encouraging the pupils to design their own roads, giving interactive presentations, hosting quizzes, or using Minecraft or Lego to create streetscapes.

Adam Bunce says: “Even children that are relatively young, 6-8 year olds, understand the importance of feeling safe walking to school, making sure there are speed limits and controlled crossings. Getting that behaviour change as young as possible is going to contribute to future generations feeling it is a normal part of life.”
www.ethosconsultants.co.uk

info@ethosconsultants.co.uk
0203 912 1852