Kirklees Council have added 25 new electric vans to their Homes and Neighbourhoods fleet to ensure they make strides towards addressing the climate emergency.
The electric vans, to be used by Kirklees Homes and Neighbourhoods, will be driving round the borough in the coming weeks.
As well as reducing emissions, the new vans will also reduce noise pollution, which the council said is a great advantage in residential areas.
Kirklees Council now have over 100 electric or hybrid vehicles in their fleet and are expanding this with a further £1m investment in electric vehicles.
The recent delivery of 25 electric vans for Homes and Neighbourhoods, along with 10 elsewhere across the council, as well as the testing of other options to make the switch to electric, is part of the authority’s drive towards a carbon neutral Kirklees.
It is estimated that these 25 electric vans alone will reduce the authority’s Homes and Neighbourhood’s environmental impact by 24,873 litres of fuel and 65,166kg of Co2 emissions per year.
In November 2019, the Kirklees Climate Emergency Working Party (CEWP) created an action plan detailing how Kirklees will become carbon neutral by at least 2038 and investing in electric vehicles is part of phase one.
Other key actions to tackle the climate emergency in Kirklees are already underway.
This includes investing £1m towards public infrastructure to encourage residents to make the switch to electric, boosting local woodland through the White Rose Forest Partnership and establishing a Kirklees Climate Commission.
Commenting, Cabinet Member for Culture and Greener Kirklees, Councillor Will Simpson said: “We are fully committed to creating a carbon neutral Kirklees and we are determined to lead by example.
“This investment in new electric vehicles is another step in taking diesel vehicles off the road and out of our fleet.
“By converting our council fleet and equipment to ULEV equivalents, our vision of a carbon neutral Kirklees is becoming ever closer.”
PSE will be hosting a Public Sector Decarbonisation & Rejuvenating Towns & Cities event on 9 September. Join us for the full day event by registering here.
