£140,000 charging points approved for Calderdale Council's new electric vehicle fleet
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Calderdale Council’s Cabinet approved spending £140,000 to pay for the electric charging points which will be needed for replacement for new council vehicles, set to be introduced from this summer.
The new vehicles will be used across the council from children’s homes to the countryside service and will play a major role in helping the council become carbon zero by 2038, said Cabinet member for Climate Change and Environment, Coun Scott Patient (Lab, Luddenden Foot).
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Hide AdThey include the Mayoral car which will be used on civic occasions.
Coun Patient told colleagues the new vehicles will cut carbon dioxide emissions by an average of 75 per cent per vehicle and reduce nitrogen dioxide emissions, helping to improve air quality across Calderdale, a long term issue in the borough.
The use of more energy-efficient vehicles will also save the council money, said Coun Patient.
“They will save £50,000 a year, so they will ‘wash their face’ quite quickly but there are also other benefits such as air quality,” he said.
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Hide AdCabinet heard the anticipated 36 new initial vehicles will include five which would be hybrid and self-charging, a further four which would be supported by home charging, leaving the balance of 27 vehicles which would require new charging infrastructure at a capital cost of £140,000, with revenue costs of £27,000 to be split between the directorates that use the fleet –
Regeneration and Strategy, Public Services, Children and Young People’s Services and Adults Services and Wellbeing.
Key sites will be Battinson Road and Mulcture House in Halifax, for overnight charging.
Many of the council’s older petrol and diesel vehicles are inefficient, requiring increasing maintenance and are in urgent need of replacement, said the briefing papers to Cabinet.
Last year the council declared a climate emergency and this is one proposal that will help acheive those goals and ticks all the boxes, said Coun Patient.