Sue Flack has spent many years working in local government in the UK, mostly in London and the East Midlands. Qualifying originally as a town planner, she focuses on working on land use and transport integration, with special interest in sustainable development and city building, working with partners and behaviour change. She has a first degree in Geography, Economics and Economic History (Leicester, 1975), a Diploma in Town Planning (South Bank, 1979), an MSc in Urban and Regional Planning (Birkbeck, 1982) and is currently part way through an MBA with the Open University. She has presented at many conferences and seminars, participated in Government advisory groups and is a member of Campaign for Better Transport’s Policy Council.
Prior to starting work for MRC McLean Hazel in June 2008, she was Head of Sustainable Transport for Northamptonshire County Council, responsible for all transport and highway functions including managed transport and planning for the huge growth requirements in the County. She was responsible for an annual budget exceeding £100m, and managed about 200 office-based staff in NCC as well as a large scale business partnership, firstly with Atkins and then with MGWSP (a joint venture between May Gurney and WSP).
Achievements at Northamptonshire include increasing bus patronage in a low funded and car dominated area by 25% over three years, introducing new performance management regimes that contributed to improving performance into the top 13% of transport authorities, influencing the sustainable communities agenda to provide consensus based solutions and creating new arrangements for delivery of growth projects, especially those required for modal shift. NCC has now approved and is implementing a transport strategy for growth, including modal shift strategy, following a transport prioritisation exercise facilitated by MRC McLean Hazel.
Sue was project owner for the procurement of a new 8-12 year contract for major highway functions for Northamptonshire, with a total expected value of £1bn. The new contract has pioneered new ways of monitoring and managing performance. Again with MRC McLean Hazel she facilitated the development and organisation of the Milton Keynes and South Midlands (MKSM) Strategic Transport Board and associated prioritisation framework and investment plan.
Prior to this Sue worked for 11 years for the City of Nottingham, where she led on the City Council’s national and internationally recognised successes in developing workplace travel plans. She initiated and ran the Nottingham Commuter Planners Club, which is still presented as good practice internationally. Sue also started and worked with the Greater Nottingham Transport Partnership, made up of large employers and other key stakeholders, which in turn organised the UN recognised ‘Big Wheel’ integrated transport marketing project and various innovative public transport, regeneration, city management, travel plans and smart card projects.
A major project at Nottingham was the development of Workplace Parking Levy proposals – about which a book could easily be written! The original aims were to provide for long term economic growth by encouraging city centre development and sustainable travel, based around the travel plan and employer partnership work. Sue led on this scheme, which was tailor-made to fit Nottingham circumstances including a well-developed partnership with employers who were very active in travel demand management.
Sue previously had very varied experience including working in pioneering experiments in local democracy (Neighbourhood Planning Officer in Globe Town Neighbourhood in a decentralised Tower Hamlets, and as Development Director for SOCATACH - South Canning Town and Custom House community and economic development project in Newham). She also worked in economic development at Lewisham and in more traditional development control and local planning in Haringey and East Hertfordshire. In the London posts she initiated and was involved in some of the earliest women’s groups in planning and was seconded to the GLC to write ‘Changing Places’ – a handbook on women and planning.
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