North Devon Council ensures first steps towards green transport

North Devon Council is to swap two of its diesel vehicles for electric cars, reducing carbon emissions from its fleet of vehicles by one per cent.

Councillors said this was the first step towards transferring all its vehicles to greener alternatives.

Members of the council’s strategy and resources committee agreed to enter a new lease agreement to replace the three and a half tonne tipper and panel van with electric.

Costs are expected to be cost neutral, with savings on fuel cancelling out increased hire charges.

They said HGVs accounted for a third of the council’s carbon emissions but there were no replacements on the market yet which were capable of dealing with the hills coming out of the depot at Brynsworthy near Barnstaple, which is where the council is also based.

The authority is currently investigating switching other smaller vehicles to electric and establishing the costs of installing more EV charging points at Brynsworthy.

Head of environmental enhancement Mark Kentell said capital works to install solar panels at the council’s headquarters and prepare the depot for a new fleet of electric vehicles which would involve laying new cables and going across third party land would be “a hefty sum”.

West Devon Borough Council recently said that a project to get their depot ready for electric transport would cost in the region of half a million pounds.

Mr Kentell said North Devon was roughly at the same point as other local authorities in Devon with its progression towards green transport apart from some small urban areas like Exeter where the journeys times were less and the terrain flatter.

Green councillor Ricky Knight (Heanton Punchardon) said the future was electric and vehicles were capable of travelling 200 miles on a full 10 hour charge. He said hydrogen was not going to happen because there was “no infrastructure” for that yet.

Councillors agreed there were “significant challenges” to getting to net zero by 2030, which is the target most local authorities have set themselves, unless the technology advances faster than it is now.

Cllr David Clayton (Lib Dem, Barnstaple with Westacott) said this was a small step the council was taking but a very welcome one.