Issue - meetings

Councillor Lucy Hodge, Cabinet Project Lead for Council Priorities & Delivery and for Neighbourhood Services introduced the report. She explained that there was a positive picture in terms of the electrification of Council fleet vehicles.

Panel members made the following points and asked the following questions:

Councillor Beaumont commended the reduction of emissions that has been made. He asked if collections would become more difficult with electric vehicles. The Cabinet Lead stated that we are currently trialling vehicles and we are confident that ‘range’ would not be an issue.

Councillor Leach asked if hydrogen is an option. The officer stated that manufacturers are going down the electric route so that is our option at the moment. There is not a supply of hydrogen at present.

Councillor Heijltjes asked what percentage of the fleet is LGVs. The officer explained that there are 50 (the fleet is 200). There are a variety of vehicle sizes. The long term plan is for larger vehicles to do the recycling collections.

Councillor MacFie asked about solar. The officer stated that there is solar in the Pixash facility in Keynsham from which is there is an approximately £120k benefit in terms of not purchasing off the grid. There is approximately £1k of solar benefit per truck. There is still capacity with roof space at present.

Councillor Box asked about the life span of trucks and the officer explained that the life span is longer than for diesel vehicles and also batteries can be repurposed.

In response to a query from Councillor Box regarding the fire risk with trucks and single use vapes, the officer explained that there has been a publicity campaign on this issue.

Councillor Leach asked if the fact that there will be less vehicles affects the resilience of the service The officer explained that there is always a ratio of spares to front line trucks.

In response to a query from Councillor Halsall, the officer explained that there is enough range/chargers to enable us to get to all areas of the district.

The Chair thanked the Cabinet Lead and officer.