Sustainable transport consultancy Go Travel Solutions has won a major contract with Leicester City Council to help businesses to travel more sustainably and reduce travel barriers for new employees.

Go Travel Solutions will work as part of a wider programme with up to 72,000 employees in Leicester, making them aware of the products and initiatives available through the Leicester Fit 4 Business (F4B) programme.

Under the contract, which runs until March 2015, Go Travel Solutions will identify businesses and contacts in the Leicester F4B programme area, identify sustainable travel champions within each business, use the champions to promote the products and services of the F4B team, plan and facilitate area-wide travel roadshows, and monitor staff travel surveys.

City Mayor Peter Soulsby said: "The Leicester Fit 4 Business programme is about removing obstacles to greener and more sustainable ways of commuting. We are already making significant investment in better routes for pedestrians and cyclists and improved facilities and services for bus passengers across the city.

"By working with Go Travel Solutions to develop this support package, we can help support local employers develop their own sustainable travel options for staff and better promote the options already available.

"The benefits are clear - sustainable travel is cheaper, good for people's health and, by helping to reduce congestion, better for the environment."

Robin Pointon, managing director of Go Travel Solutions, said: “Go Travel Solutions has several years’ experience in developing and promoting the business case for sustainable travel in Leicester and the wider UK.

"We’re delighted that Leicester City Council has selected us to provide additional input for the Fit 4 Business Travel Package, providing us with even more opportunity to proactively engage with local employers and their staff in sustainable travel.”

The Fit 4 Business area covers Leicester city centre and Cobden Street Industrial Estate; the north west and south west of the city (including the Beaumont Leys Business Parks, Grove Park, Fosse Park and Meridian).

Leicester’s Fit 4 Business initiative was awarded £4.4 million from the Department for Transport’s Local Sustainable Transport Fund in 2011. It features one of the biggest employer engagement programmes ever to be undertaken in the UK for sustainable travel.