Less than two per cent of Council-owned vehicles are electric
By Alex Greensmith
13th Jan 2023 | Local News
A Freedom of Information request has revealed how many of Cheshire East Council-owned vehicles are electric.
As the Council hopes to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and is 'committed to both becoming carbon neutral in its own operations by 2025', it has been revealed how electric motors Cheshire East Council owns.
The council's Strategic Highways team which do things like budgeting and quality control of our roads own 340 petrol and diesel cars.
They own six electric cars and zero hybrid vehicles.
Their waste, recycling, street cleaning and grounds maitenance contractor Ansa Environmental Services have just one electric vehicle.
They have zero petrol vehicles, and 110 diesel ones.
However, the Middlewich firm do own two hydrogen-powered vehicles, which are fully zero carbon unlike electric cars - so are better for the environment.
When it comes to potholes, Cheshire East do not own any cars for that. That belongs to Cheshire East contractor, Chelmsford-based Ringway Jacobs.
As a result, Ringway Jacobs are not subject to the Freedom of Information Act 2000, so their fleet of potential electric vehicles are unknown.
This means of the known 459 vehicles, nine are low or zero emission, representing 1.96% of the known total fleet.
Disregarding the two hydrogen vehicles, these seven electric cars would make a percentage of 1.52%.
Cheshire East Council responded to Congleton Nub News' request for comment.
Congleton: A diesel-powered gritter outside Cheshire East Council HQ. (Image - Cheshire East Council)
Councillor Mick Warren, chair of the council's environment and communities committee, said: "The council is committed to continuing the transition of its fleet and plant to electric in support of its target of becoming carbon neutral in council operations by 2025. To transition our fleet, we need to have both the vehicles which meet our operational needs, and the infrastructure to charge and maintain them.
"Driving 100 per cent electric sees lower running costs and the use of battery technology produces zero emissions. Electric vehicles are efficient to drive and help to contribute to the reduction in air pollution across the borough.
"To date, many of our services have started to use electric vehicles including the library service, community wardens, Ansa Environmental Services and Cheshire East highways, who have now invested in electric vehicles equating to nine per cent of the fleet (11 out of 122 vehicles), with more vehicles on order. Staff can also now use electric pool cars when travelling across the borough for business.
"In order to accelerate the adoption of electric vehicles, we are also investing in new charging points in our depots and other council buildings.
"Looking even further forward, the future will see us replacing more of our fleet and plant with electric and we will continue to stay at the forefront of emerging new low carbon fuel technologies."
Last week, the council affirmed their commitment to making 'council services sustainable', a definition which would include cars like their Highways vehicles.
It must be noted any electric cars purchased by the borough since October 2022 have not been included within this investigation.
In fairness to the Council many of these diesel-powered vehicles are trucks and gritters. And when compared to electric cars, there aren't as many electric trucks and gritters on the market, and they are more expensive, at a time where the Council has faced 'a perfect storm' of both COVID-19 and the cost of living crisis.
According to EDF Energy, just one electric car on the roads can save an average 1.5 million grams of CO2, as they are responsible for significantly less carbon emissions.
As a result, they are perceived by electric car manufacturers and scientists to be an environmentally friendly way to reduce emissions, and a way to limit the amount of fossil fuels being burned and release into the atmosphere. This is because an electric car will likely replace somebody using a petrol and diesel cars, which would emit CO2.
It should be disclosed that electric vehicles are not without their faults. Namely the lack of infrastructure in Cheshire East meaning it would be hard to charge, and that the UK is not up to stretch in terms of charging ports. And they still create carbon emissions.
However, according to The ICCT, more than a third of the lifetime CO2 emissions from an electric car come from the energy used to make the car itself.
It should be noted that these Cheshire East Council figures do not include vehicles owned by Congleton Town Council, as they are separate entities.
In lieu of a response from the Council and in the interest of balance, research suggests Cheshire East still has more council-owned electric vehicles than other parts in the UK, despite the single digits.
For example, in late 2022 WalesOnline reported that 11 of 796 of Carmarthenshire County Council's cars and vans where electric, marking just 1.38%.
Looking wider than just local government, 2022 figures from UK-wide EV website ZapMap estimates "there are now over 620,000 battery-electric cars on our nation's roads, plus a further 440,000 plug-in hybrids."
Find a list of current charging stations in Congleton on this link.
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