New electric vehicles will help Salford City Council in its important work to tackle climate change and reduce pollution in the city.

The council has bought 12 new electric Renault Kangoo vans which will be used in environmental operational service areas such as: waste and recycling collection monitoring; fly tipping investigation and enforcement; dog, animal and pest welfare and control.New electric vans photo

The new vehicles will replace existing diesel vans. They will save the council money because they will cost a third less to run than diesel ones.

It’s estimated the new vans will cut exhaust emissions – a diesel van would emit between 147 to 156 grams of carbon dioxide and up to 1.5 grammes of nitrogen oxide per kilometre. The vans will travel on average 350 miles a month per vehicle and will be charged up overnight.

Councillor David Lancaster, Lead Member for Environment and Community Safety, said: “We wanted to get these electric vans to replace our old ones, because we know how important it is to reduce our carbon footprint as much as we can. As 60 per cent of our employees live in Salford, we can lead by example and help inspire residents to do their bit to help the environment. The new vans will reduce air pollution, so have much less impact on the environment, and are also much cheaper to run.”

Tackling climate change is one of the council’s main priorities. In the past decade the council has reduced its carbon emissions by 50 per cent and become the first local authority in Greater Manchester to convert its high streetlights to LED. All the electricity for the council comes from renewable suppliers. All this helps to combat climate change and save money.

Salford City Council is part of the Greater Manchester Clean Air Plan to tackle air pollution Greater Manchester has been directed by government to introduce a Clean Air Zone.

Air pollution is a major cause of ill health and reduces life expectancy by at least two years. The most vulnerable people in society are hit hardest – children, older people and those already in poor health. In towns and cities, road vehicles are the main source of air pollution.

1 COMMENT

  1. What a joke Salford council are they build apartment blocks on every bit of land and the seriously expect putting a few electric vehicles out will make any difference. Traffic around lets say Ordsall estate as massively increased over last few years and this is all they can do. You may be able to kid your self with these attempts at PR but in truth I believe Salford council are a bunch of idiots if they think this will make the slightest change to the extremely poor air quality in Salford.

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