Council backs reintroduction of electric dustcarts
Nov 26 2009 by Paul Dale, Birmingham Mail
ELECTRIC dustcarts could soon be back on the streets of Birmingham for the first time since the 1940s.
The idea is part of a major city council initiative to cut pollution and carbon dioxide. The council intends to buy only environmentally friendly vehicles for its fleet of 1,249 vans, trucks and cars by 2015.
Deputy council leader Paul Tilsley, the man behind the scheme, said electrically-powered dustcarts would be nothing new for Birmingham.
He said: “The technology was around a long time ago. When I was growing up in this city after the war all the dustcarts were driven by electric so in many respects we are trying to turn the clock back.”
Other measures planned in what’s being called the Birmingham Declaration on climate change include a commitment to reduce the council’s energy consumption by a quarter and to ensure that at least ten per cent of homes in the city are linked to green heating systems by 2015.
Coun Tilsley (Lib Dem Sheldon) also wants to create ten “low carbon communities” similar to the Summerfield Eco-neighbourhood in Edgbaston where householders were given grants to install insultation, new boilers, solar panels and wind turbines.
He wants the council, which spends £1 billion a year on buying goods and services, to team up with other councils and use their joint purchasing power to drive forward the green agenda. The announcement could be good news for Midland firms.
Coventry-based Modec, which claims to be the world’s first manufacturer of purpose-built zero emission vehicles, recently received a £23 million grant from American President Barack Obama to roll out its electric vans to the US market.
Sutton Coldfield-based Zytek, meanwhile, is also involved in developing electric delivery vehicles for the Americans.
Coun Tilsley said the move to get rid of petrol and diesel-powered vehicles would act as a huge boost to the region’s automotive producers.
He added: “If we can’t collectively in local government help to drive the market forward, then what can we do?”
