A quick Googling turns up:
The latest complete earnings analysis (2021) from the ONS shows that for full-time workers, the average earnings are even higher, with the UK’s average full-time wage now standing at £31,285, a 0.6% decrease YoY, while part-time workers in the UK earn an average of £11,310, a 0.6% increase YoY.
So yes £32k us about “average” but I do think STW is perhaps not a totally representative cross-section of UK demographics and hence the picture you might get of a “normal” income from this place is skewed on the high side sometimes. I earn more and I have friends (also into cycling) that earn a substantial amount more, my feeling is that you shouldn’t shun the wealthy or feel self-conscious about your own earnings or “worth” but do watch out for the signs of “competitive types”. There are people with money that want you to know you have less, and others who don’t care and don’t bring it up. I know both sorts and I know which I prefer spending time with.
As for the pay for this role, yep no doubt that the recruiting organisation see it as a “dream job” for some niche individual or another. Only a handful of people will really meet the spec being an expert in Beavers and ecology, able to manage reintroduction of a species (across the whole chuffing nation!), advise government as well as having the people skills to work with all other stakeholders, that’s essentially what they’re asking for.
And that person has probably spent a decade plus in academia, and could probably walk into a job paid at least £20k more in private sector, environmental consulting tomorrow… They want someone who feels a vocational need to do the job, certainly not a financial one.