Agenda item

To consider the following Transport and Sustainability related reports scheduled for Cabinet consideration on 23 June 2021:

•   Council Fleet Replacement Programme & Sustainable Fleet Management Strategy

The O&S Board is asked to scrutinise the reports and make recommendations to Cabinet as appropriate.

Cabinet members invited to attend for this item: Councillor M Greene, Portfolio Holder for Transport and Sustainability and Councillor M Anderson, Portfolio Holder for Environment, Cleansing and Waste

The Cabinet report for this item is included with the agenda for consideration by the Overview and Scrutiny Board.

Council Fleet Replacement Programme & Sustainable Fleet Management Strategy – The Portfolio Holder for Transport and Sustainability and the Portfolio Holder for Environment, Cleansing and Waste introduced the report a copy of which had been circulated to members of the Board and a copy of which appears as Appendix A to these minutes in the minute book. The Portfolio Holders outlined the key issues within the report and responded to a number of issues raised by Board members in the subsequent discussion including:

The environmental impact of the use of palm oil as part of the mix to be used for vehicles. The Portfolio Holder advised that unsustainable oils would not be used. All oils would be accredited and where waste oil was used it would, in all cases, be completely traceable.

It was noted that hybrid fuel/ electric vehicles were in use in some boroughs for buses. Although the typical usage of buses would have an impact on their use there was consideration being given to the potential use of pure electric for some buses.

·       A Board member commented that the “up to 90 percent” reduction in carbon monoxide emissions seemed both vague and at odds with a paper from 2018 which states that the changes being introduced would contribute a 30 percent reduction in emissions. The Portfolio Holder recorded his thanks to Cllr A Hadley for his help in getting to the current point. The 90 percent figure was in relation to a combination of saving from moving to HVO and further savings by moving to electric vehicles. It was anticipated that by 2030 85 percent of the Council fleet would be ultra-low emission vehicles. However, it would not make economical or environmental sense to scrap vehicles early. Overall use would be depreciating and would not be creating a second-hand market.

·       Councillor commented that it was good that the transition to HVO was with the intent of it being a transitional fuel and that the Council were looking in the future to move away from it. However, the report did not appear to be looking at an overall change in transportation habits, for example the use of electric bikes for seafront deliveries. The Portfolio Holder confirmed that they were looking at alternatives to the vehicles themselves and the paper considered back in November mentioned a figure of 700 plus vehicles and the paper was now looking at 611 vehicles.

·       The risk concerning availability of sufficient HVO fuel. It was noted that the likelihood of this happening was very slim but if it did happen vehicles could be reverted back to diesel. HVO would be used in diminishing qualities and there should be a sufficient supply to cover shortages.

·       It was noted that there was no conversion factor for HVO for calculating base carbon emissions and it was suggested that this would be useful.

·       There was a concern raised about members of staff using their own homes and electricity supply to charge the Council’s electric vehicle fleet, in particular whether this was discriminatory towards certain members of staff. The Board was advised that the charges would go straight to the employer rather than the employee and it would not be practical to charge in car parks as these needed to be available for the public.

·       It was suggested that there was no need at the current time to replace the mayoral cars. It was noted that some of the cars were coming to the end of their practical life but they would only be replaced when necessary and this would be reviewed. However others suggested that the cars were outdates and unnecessary

It was moved and seconded that:

Cabinet be asked to reconsider the purchase of new mayoral cars in 2022/23, remove the purchase from the plan and reconsider this at the end of the next three-year period.

Voting: 7:7

The Chairman used his casting vote against the motion.

The Chairman commented that there was no mention in the paper of how the fleet is actually managed and across which areas it was located.  The Chairman thanked both Portfolio Holders for their report and response to the Board’s questions.