City of York Council has announced plans to transition its fleet to zero-emission vehicles by 2024.
The council said it will be taking a report outlining the full details to an executive meeting on 19 March.
This includes reducing carbon emissions from the council’s fleet of 535 vehicles under 3.5 tonnes by a third.
The fleet is valued at £15.3m and includes 180 vehicles that are under 3.5 tonnes and 153 that are currently due to be replaced over the next three years.
Together they emit a total of 1,763 tonnes of CO2 every year.
Cllr Andy D’Agorne, deputy leader of the council and executive member for transport, City of York Council, said: “We want to set an example within the city and lead the move of commercial vehicles to ones with zero carbon emissions at the tailpipe.
“We want this to be the catalyst for other fleet operators within the city to start to change their fleets to zero emission vehicles.”
Under the new proposals, the council said it aims to transition to an electric fleet over a four-year phased period. This will include:
– Year one: securing infrastructure to enable an electric fleet to operate at council sites / ordering three electric waste vehicles.
– Year two: services ready for an electric fleet to make the change as the infrastructure will now be in place. For services that require changes to the way they operate, a third of the vehicles will move to electric.
– Years three and four: services that need a phased approach will be progressed to all-electric as quickly as possible.
According to City of York Council, the financial implications of moving towards an electric fleet would vary depending on the size and type of vehicle and would need to factor in the infrastructure costs to support the green fleet too at council sites.
In order to achieve this, the council said it will propose a fleet replacement programme, which will be considered on an annual basis as part of the annual capital programme.
This is estimated to cost in the region of £2.22m.
Other carbon emission-busting measures implemented by the council include introducing a clean air zone for buses and the transition of the Park & Ride fleet of buses to electric double decker buses, which will be completed this year.
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