Islington Council reveals plan for greener fleet

Islington Council has revealed plans for a new “green fleet” of vehicles that will use the cleanest possible technology and fuels, as it launches a borough-wide spring clean campaign this month.

Almost half of the car fleet is electric or hybrid already, but Islington Council has begun to purchase larger vehicles powered by compressed natural gas, or CNG.

The majority of the CNG powering Islington’s vehicles will come from biomethane, which is produced entirely from waste food.

The council will spend around £3million in total this year on greener vehicles, including trialling three refuse and recycling trucks, five heavy vans, an accessible community transport bus and a street sweeper, all powered by CNG.

A further 60 light vans and cars will also be replaced with full electric or hybrid models, as part of a planned renewal cycle.

Cllr Claudia Webbe, Islington’s executive member for environment and transport, said: “We are committed to reducing air pollution and carbon emissions in our borough, and having a zero-emissions fleet of our own is the ultimate target, once technology allows.

“Larger vehicles can’t yet be run on electricity but we are investing in compressed natural gas technology to power our larger vans and trucks, and will keep searching out the greenest possible ways to do things.

“Polluting diesel vehicles will soon be a thing of the past in our own fleet – our next step is to introduce new vans for the street cleaning service and new accessible community transport buses, both powered by compressed natural gas.

“The future can only be green if we all strive towards that goal – and I’m proud to be pushing towards a zero-emission fleet in Islington.

“This is part of our wider environmental agenda and a great way to kick off our month-long Spring Clean programme, which will see more major announcements and cleaning blitzes in town centres.”

The March spring clean will see the council’s street cleaning services targeting town centres and grot spots around the borough – and are calling on schools, businesses and residents to roll up their sleeves and get involved in keeping their borough spick and span.