To meet international targets for carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, in 2001, the government encouraged us to switch to diesel cars, even introducing new tax rates as an incentive, but after experts found diesel emissions contained particulates that cause health problems and premature death, politicians began to criticise drivers of ‘dirty’ diesel cars.
Despite their talk on the dangers of diesel, local authority leaders aren’t leading by example and switching to vehicles powered by alternative ‘greener’ fuel sources, highlighted by new research showing that almost 92% of council vehicles have diesel engines.
One rule for one and one rule for another
Under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, Auto Express reached out to the local authorities in England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland and found that, of the 320 that responded, 91.6% of all the vehicles run on diesel with 62 council fleets consisting only of diesel vehicles.
While fleets vary across the UK, the average fleet has 208 vehicles—vehicles such as dustbin lorries, gritters, and minibuses.
Local authorities admit that replacing their fleets’ diesel vehicles with electric alternatives isn’t an option most of the time, which shows how much the UK relies on diesel. With seven out of the 12 responding councils revealing 98.6% of their fleet is diesel-powered, the Northern Ireland councils depend most on the fuel. Scottish councils are least dependent on it, having the highest proportion of electric vehicles (EVs) in their fleet, but even nine out of 10 of their vehicles are diesel.
An increasing number of councils plan to either outright ban diesel drivers from entering certain areas or charge them a fee for the privilege.
In November, we told you how Bristol City Council plans to ban private diesel cars from its city centre, yet 369 (81.5%) of the council’s own 453 vehicles are diesel, and councillors say they intend to buy a further 64 diesel vans.
And 89% of the 4,844-strong fleet operated by London councils use diesel, including at least 724 (15%) pre-Euro 6 diesel vehicles. Yet, drivers of vehicles with the same non-compliant diesel engines must pay £12.50 to enter the city’s Ultra-Low Emission Zone (ULEZ).
Is an electric council fleet just a pipe dream?
Responding to the analysis by Auto Express, the Local Government Association (LGA)—the national membership body for local authorities across England and Wales—said ‘councils are eager to switch to EVs or low-emission alternatives where possible,’ but ‘the vast majority’ of the specialist vehicles councils use don’t have workable electric alternatives because ‘they don’t exist’.
A Spokesperson for the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA) said the figures ‘show a shift away’ from the picture of a traditional diesel fleet and, because of this, there’s a progression towards ‘decarbonising Local Authorities’ fleets.’
COSLA said this shift is likely to span several years but that local government is ‘committed to working towards that goal with Transport Scotland and our public sector partners.’
A spokesperson for Bristol City Council who says the council ‘has a legal duty to improve our air quality,’ said the council hasn’t yet established full details of the city’s Clean Air Zone (CAZ) plan, but that, once the final scheme is in place, it’ll influence how the council uses its fleet, adding, ‘the aim is to reduce air pollution and establish Bristol as a carbon-neutral city.’
Councils that depend on diesel still run a high proportion of EVs compared to the proportion of EVs in the UK as a whole. Together, councils own 1,835 EVs—2.75% of their collective fleets—while the 94,000 EVs registered in the UK make up just 0.25% of vehicles. Of councils with larger fleets (over 20 vehicles), North Somerset has the highest EV proportion, with 36% of its 95 vehicles being pure electric. Of the councils that responded, their fleet included just 306 hybrids and 118 Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEVs).
The dirty dozen
Across the UK, 12 local authorities stand out because of the number of diesel vehicles in their municipal fleets. These are Aberdeen, Dundee, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Newcastle, Leeds. Manchester, Sheffield, Oxford, Bristol, Bath & North East Somerset, and London. We’ve covered the plans to improve air quality in London and Bristol, but what can you expect from these other major cities?
Aberdeen, Edinburgh, and Dundee both have Low Emission zones (LEZ) under consultation, with Dundee’s introduction planned by the end of 2020 and Glasgow city centre LEZ will ban non-Euro 4 petrol cars and non-Euro 6 diesel vehicles from 2023.
Leeds, Sheffield, and Bath plan to charge drivers of more-polluting HGVs, buses, and taxis to enter the CAZ, with Leeds charging £12.50-£50, Sheffield £10-£50, and Bath £9-£100.
An emission standard-based CAZ for HGVs, buses, taxis, and vans is under consideration in Manchester and Newcastle and, while Oxford is under development, the council could ban non-EVs from parking in the city centre and upgrade its bus fleet to Euro 6.
The demonisation of diesel meant that, in 2017, CO2 emissions rose for the first time in 14 years because of drivers choosing petrol cars over diesel, causing a massive drop in diesel sales. What’s ironic is, tests show that most modern Euro-6 diesel engines are less polluting than many petrol vehicles. Let’s hope the government doesn’t make another u-turn once we’re all driving battery-powered cars.
Are the proposed ‘clean air’ measures workable and fair for everybody? Is your local authority listed? How are they performing? Share your opinions in the comments.
Well I had a comment in mind, which I totally forgot on scrolling to the comments section and seeing an ad for Calpol, including the ingredients of Calprofen at the bottom of the page.
My two daughters are ill and I added Calprofen to an SMS text message shopping list to my wife, she also called after work and asked if I needed anything else and I asked if she’d got that. I doubt it’s my carrier, or the hardware manufacturer, likely Google spying on SMS and calls. Creepy. Maybe petrolprices.com should scrutinise the source of these ads.
Of course, it could’ve been sheer dumb coincidence.
Your phone listens to you and google analyses the speech
turn off targeted ads then!
Read the Ts & cs, duhhhhh!
I have read t and c’s and turned off targeted ads.
The response was that I would continue to receive some ads, even if not appropriate.
No need for the duhhhhhh!
Am I missing something? You don’t appear to tell us of any consequences of the SMS?
I think you are right. It is called targeted advertising. Try mentioning another product in a text message and see if it pops up, My daughter noticed this.
Yet more evidence, as if more was needed, that the only reason councils are introducing these types of pollution charges (as with so called Safety Cameras) is as a revenue source. Convenient, isn’t it? And yet again the motorist pays for withdrawal of central Government funding to local councils. Hypocrites, the lot of them.
Not everyone lives in towns & cities where there are electric chargers. I live in Cumbria with vast swathes of hard to reach hamlets and small villages and limited charge points. Notwithstanding the fact that there only appears to be one prototype electric refuse collector currently, it would be impractical for refuse vehicles that stop and start on and return to the depot to empty the waste to be in a position to wait whilst the vehicle charges. Yes if the vehicles are out there at not inflated cost to purchase, and the infrastructure is in place. Until then it is highly impractical for many small authorities. My council has electric and dual fuel vans already.
EVs WHEN NOT MOVING DO NOT USE POWER UNLIKE PETROL OR DIESIL VEHICLES SO WOULD PROBABLY NOT NEED TO CHARGE UP IN NORMQL WORKING HOURS
So the lights,heater blowers wipers etc don’t use electricity? Get real!
Typical response from someone who believes all the supposed ‘experts’ that know so very little !
Anyway..long live the Tesla truck…it can do all of 4 miles before its battery is empty and it then reverts to its rather large internal combustion engine for mobility….
Unbelievable !
Tesla do not make vehicles with ICE powertrains. I assume you were joking.
I believe hybrids do more MPG than just ICEs. No need for charging points/charging time.
That is very true “Harry the shouter” , but when a refuse lorry stops moving it is usually because the bin men are putting rubbish in the back. That system of lifting the bins and pulling the rubbish into the back draws huge amounts of power. Therefore, not moving does not equate to not consuming power.
CanI ask what power the fleet of range Rovers we see with Royalty, MPs and their entourages in tow driving around London?
The question is about Local Councils, not Royalty etc.
To answer your point, Royalty has a mix of petrol and diesel powered vehicles. I have no idea what M.Ps drive but I doubt if most drive Electric vehicles. Some go to Parliament by bicycle.
Most vehicles used by my local council are diesel. There are not many charging points for EV’s in rural Norfolk.
I’ve noticed that they are starting to use the electric Jaguar I-Pace
As usual, do as i say, not as i do. When are you lot going to realise you are SLAVES. You may not have chains around your ankles but you are DEBT SLAVES. Refuse to pay any fee’s/fines imposed on you. If we ALL refuse it’s not like they can take us ALL to court now is it.
Well said
Have you refused to pay yet?
I have refused to pay the latest precept in Manchester where our unwanted elected mayor deducts a £10 from each tax payer…. to give a bus pass to teenagers… My suggestion was , get them off their phones and into a part timer job, earn some money, buy your own bus pass if it means that much to you!
Of course they do. What do you really expect?
The situation is complicated by the outsourcing of council services that has been encouraged over the past 20 years … what you call council vehicles are probably not, strictly speaking, as although they are on council business, the bin lorries here are Dorset Waste Partnership … and so on.
Birmingham City Council are a bunch of hypocrites, they whine over air polution and are introding punishing congestion charges and over priced car parking charges, which will kille the city centre, but their fleet is the filthiest of the lot. Even some private bus companies have gone electric on their fleet, but our council is good at saying and ordering one thing, and doing the exact opposite.
Os gallwch gael gwell cyllid i Lywodraeth Leol ,allan o lywodraeth Geidwladol sydd wedi torri’n ol am 10 mlynedd
i’r Asgwrn bydd Llywodraeth Leol yn troi at Foduron Trydan!
Be fydd gwerth yr hen Foduron a faint o golled i’r Treth Dalwyr???
MLlD
What are you trying to prove Meirick posting in Welsh, apart from a pathetic attempt at a point that few will appreciate. 10 years of broken government says that you are obviously a dyed in the wool Labour supported, well you may not have noticed, but you are now in for at least another 5 years since your Marxist leader has cast you further into the wilderness.
My authority a few years ago declared a couple of ev’s at considerable cost of £40K . Since then the only thing I have heard is that employees wouldn’t book them out for work related trips due to range anxiety. Have they been mothballed ?
What a waste of public money. Those at the top making the decisions should have lead by example and made use of them.
But CEV, its not their money… so they can be as free and easy as they like! And if they would like some more they simply up your Council tax.
I thought they had taken lead out of petrol? (lol)
Could’nt agree with you more!
DIM esgus dros osod safonau i’r gweddill ohonom yna peidio â chyrraedd y safonau hynny eu hunain …
or for those who dont speak Welsh….
NO excuse for setting standards for the rest of us then not meeting those standards themselves…
Try English for your next comment. It will reach a lot more people. I guess you are trying to make some points, but most people will not get them. I am not trying to be ‘racist’, just practical. Merry Christmas
Clean emission vehicles are coming, it will take about 5 years or more for it to become a reality but I fear not in the wilds of Dorset or most rural areas around the country.
What will get there first: Only electric vehicles or our extinction? We have only got 10 years, according to Extinction Rebellion.
Well, as I drive a diesel, it would be very wrong of me to criticise, would it not?
The point being is that you more than likely do not tell others not to use diesel or make up financial fines against diesel drivers, has the authoraties are doing.
No… free country, your opinion is as valid as anyone elses.
It would be advantageous that Councils should run their refuse collection on a 2 shift system Here are a few of the good thing with this system.
A. no one looses their jobs
B. Councils buy or lease half the vehicle at a massive saving
C. More to the point only half of the pollution would be exuded in busy day time and the twilight shift pollution would be given a chance to disperse before daytime…
Hence people would be asleep when the night shift is working and not sucking in pollution.
D.Because only half the vehicles are required on a 2 shift system with the money saved it may allow for councils to improve the fleet of vehicles and replace with more modern less polluting vehicles and possibly electric ones
So far as I know, they did not use a two shift system, but when I lived in Madrid in the 1970s, they collected refuse every night, and hosed down the streets at the same time.
Bristol City Council have spent 2.1 million pounds on diesel vans in the last 12 months and then introduces a diesel ban section of Bristol…..
Somehow, I don’t think Bristol City Council will be issuing fines to themselves for their diesel vehicles entering the ‘diesel free zones’!
I recently acquired a EURO-6 diesel turbo powered X-trail, specifically so that I could enter and cross Ultra Low Emission Zones across the country without penalty, only to find that my local Bristol council will be charging ALL diesels irrespective of their E rating. Nuts !
That will teach you to think for yourself /s
Well they could make a lot of money fining themselves. An in-house arrangement, with clever accounting.
Realistically, penalising car and private vehicle owners is completely unjustified given the large number of usually larger vehicles used by public authorities and government departments.. Until there is a low carbon alternative for HGV’s agricultural vehicles most public transport this is just exploitation and money collection.
While we must ‘do our bit’ unless the major ‘polluters’ China, India, USA etc. make significant steps, our efforts will cause considerable misery and inconvenience for absolutely no end gain. Does anyone seriously think China will say @Oh UK has gone carbon neutral we must do the same at once’. I think not.
The emphasis should be on containing or reducing the emissions by engineering means such that the existing type of vehicles can continue as normal but cleaner.
And when will ‘they’ come clean about the real absolute emissions of manufacture and ultimate disposal of the very high tech batteries etc.
Many of the measurement and data reported are not supported with methodology and calibration verification and thus cannot be accepted as ‘the truth’
As an octogenarian Chartered Engineer specialist in Measurement and Control I am depressed by the pseudo science and logic being circulated.
The psuedo science has always been with us when it comes to environmentalists. They always look only at the direct environmental costs, excluding manufacture and disposal. This applies to things other than cars as well. (Wind turbines give us free energy, but have a huge envoronmental cost in manufacture and installation.)
As to electric cars, as well as the battery problems you mention, charging time is probably more of an issue than range. Also much electricity is still generated by polluting means. This includes nuclear power. Quite apart from the fact that the generating companies are already saying they will not be able to meet the demands of electric vehicles without huge increases in capacity.
Wind Power: It was never “free”. Of course wind turbines have to be manufactured and maintained, just as power stations of any fuel type, Coal, Gas, Nuclear, Biomass. do.
Onshore wind power however is now the CHEAPEST way to generate electricity and is still getting cheaper and along with offshore wind and other renewables makes up about 30% of the the UK’s needs. PS I’m not a NIMBY, there are at least 26 wind turbines in my locale in County Durham.
https://www.bbc.com/news/business-45881551
Every new venture has start up costs. How much for instance does it cost to build a nuclear power station?
I have not noticed the unit price going down on my electricity bill yet.
I remember reading a couple of years ago that a wind-power generator was paid £2 million for electricity even though it was nor required at the time. There was a contract to fulfil.
yes but people often want the wind power but NOT the wind farms as theyre ‘blots on the landscape’ and ‘ruining the environmental appearance’ of an area! and all too often the ones in County Durham are switched OFF as its TOO WINDY!!! (i live in that area now too)
Well said Ray.
The only true measure is end to end emissions.
But as that will just show the politicians and tree hugging a scientists have flawed logic, we will never get the true end to end emissions data.
Technology exists to cut the harmful tailpipe emissions that is now used to beat up the private motorists driving diesel vehicles but excludes HGVs from the same timescales.
That technology is Diesel Particulate traps and adblue additive, these can be retrofitted to vehicles, the motor industry denies this as it wants to sell new vehicles not extend working life of existing. Vehicles.
One only has to look at Oxford street in london which bans all private vehicles yet has the highest levels of these diesel generated toxic emissions.
This fact needs more airtime.
.
Interesting but remember a lot of local authority fleets are bin wagons. They need Diesel engines with the torque to run packer plates and compaction. Technology is catching up but will need a track record to be bankable.
You could rebel by not putting your rubbish out.
Where I live, the bin men must be rebelling cos they seem to have given up collecting it!
The anti-Diesel argument is just stupid now. Many new Diesels emit negligible NoX and particulates now, and lower CO2: https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/cars/article-6733271/Are-diesel-cars-really-dirty-Tests-reveal-models-produce-zero-NOx-emissions.html
The bandwagon that government and councils (and Petrolprices it seems) has jumped on is ridiculous, not at all based in science.
By the way I drive a petrol with a 3 litre engine, it does 35mpg on the motorway and is Euro4, so not too toxic (but only about 5,000 miles per year).
The story should be, ‘restrict old dirty Diesels’, not the clean ones being sold now.
I suspect it would be too much for such strong opponents to change their stance now the science shows the new ones are no worse than petrols.
In a world with climate change than the newest Diesels have lower global warming potential (CO2) than petrol and lower or equivalent toxic emissions, (particulates and NOx).
Bristol is known for the strong views of its residents, whether factually correct or not, enough said perhaps.
Before electric or other zero emission vehicles are mainstream Diesel seems like a great choice to me for the factors I mentioned above. Let’s not forget most zero emission vehicles use a lot of expensive minerals in the batteries and a lot of the energy to power them still comes from fossil fuels.
In the future when we’re producing almost mostly renewable energy and electric vehicles work for most uses then Diesel and petrol will be the enemy, but until then Diesel seems just fine to me, no worse than petrol for the latest vehicles.
The councils have almost no money, so they should use new clean Diesels, and their public policies should be grounded in the science and technology of now, not 10 years ago before Diesel emissions were tightened, or 10 years in the future when electric power will be much more practical.
Sadly science sowed the seed of destruction for Diesel which became the story, but it’s too much for science to turnaround its image now that emissions tech. has improved significantly.
Euro 4 Diesels are dirty, and te not allowed in most inner cities without a penalty fee.
To enter London’s ULEZ one needs to be driving a Euro 6 minimum vehicle, preferably a Euro 6.2
Apart from the ‘do as I say, not as I do’ argument, the cost to councils to replace their fleets of diesels will be passed to the local taxpayers, both by way of higher council tax, parking permits and anything else they can charge for PLUS take much needed funding from social care, elderly care, schools and other council-run parts of our lives. There will be a mountain of unsalable vehicles to dispose of (recycle somehow?) and the traditional third world dumping grounds are taking less and less. However to agree with another contributor earlier, until the USA, China and other parts of Asia stop polluting the world, we are on a hiding to nowhere! However noble our ideas, we will be thwarted by others.
I believe my council Sevenoaks Kent are trialing EVs However, there has been no or very little media about them.
What each county council should do is have a dedicated team account and staff working out what vehicles will suit, however you have tardy legacy manufacturers not producing BEVs but hybrids which are a waste of money.
I remember in days gone by when electric milk floats were towed to the beginning of the round or towed back to the depot, especially in the winter when their lights were on, some didn’t indicate to turn, lots even used the handbrake to stop, so not to put the brake lights on all to save battery power.
Why are hybrids a waste of money? Surely it depends upon what one’s typical daily vehicle use is. If the vehicle is mainly used just for local commuting and under 30 miles total per day, then for many people it should be perfectly feasible to manage with a plug-in hybrid electric that can be recharged daily overnight at home or in daytime at work; and since such a vehicle has a much smaller battery than a fully electric vehicle it will cost less and weigh less and so be even more efficient.
I don’t see the point of plugin hybrids when other hybrids manage the same economy without the tedious need of plugging your car in on a regular basis. Once again, I must be missing something.
A car is a tool of my business i.e. running my home, paying my bills, feeding my kids…. When I buy a asset for my business it needs have as many functions as possible… I dont buy a hammer that only knocks in little nails, even if I have to bash big nails maybe 3 times a year. My car purchase then is based not only on the commute, but on social driving, personal business i.e. shopping, taxi work, running everone around, extended trips, holidays etc. If I hve an EV I have to beg steal borrow or hire a vehicle for all but the shortest useage. Any business that buys assest that dont give the widest use is on its way out…
This is all bad timing and political clap trap. As the article said Euro 6 Diesel is cleaner (NOx) than petrol engines particularly the modern DI ones. Then we have Euro 7 just round the corner. Older diesels would be better targeted though this does hit the less well off, but where there is a will….
Never mind Child Labour for Cobalt in DRC as seems to be Greenpeace’s attitude in an E mail exchange I had with them
About 12 months ago.
That’s all well and good but these lean burning modern diesels are totally unsuited to low mileage drivers due to DPFs and other technology that potentially cost an arm and a leg to maintain.
Read this and maybe you won’t buy a secondhand diesel. https://www.motoringresearch.com/car-news/unreliable-secondhand-diesel-cars/
utter rubbish if you buy the RIGHT diesel, one with an active regeneration system rather than a passive regeneration system. i know people with annual mileages as low as 2,000 per year (yes 2 thousand miles) with active regeneration DPFs and have never once had an issue. these systems dont need to be driven on the motorway for 30-40 mins after reaching operating temerature to regenerate the DPF, but in fact will, if needs arise, trigger a regeneration at ANY point once the engine temps are met with the requirements.
Typical Councils ! Hypocrisy (of the highest order), another word to add to the list to describe them, as well as petty, incompetent, lazy, annoying, ignorant, clueless, and I have seen all those mentioned, having dealt with my local Council on many occasions. Not an impressive bunch of people, should you ever have the misfortune of having to deal with them.
I recently changed my Mercedes SLK 3.0litre with a Jaguar XF25T, as I don’t do a large mileage (6000pa) although a diesel option was available.
We also changed my wife’s car, a CLIO diesel, with a TCE90 petrol version for much the same reason.
I would agree that the latest Euro6 diesels are probably as clean, if not more so, than petrol engines, but the government’s constant changes of mind are misleading.
If they changed every vehicle i their fleets of hundred if not thousands of vehicles and their sub contractors and all the charging points needed for overnight charging you would soon moan about the council taxes going up in to 2 numbered percentages, they must run their lives out to be economic, the third world can only take so many vehicles per year and most don’t use dust carts but if they could sell them off it just moves the pollution to else where the same as the mining ,steel industries of Chins and India and end of life scrapping industries on the Eastern beaches of India
Not only my council is all diesel but they allow their employees to keep their engines running all day when pointed out to them the reply is what do you want us to do about it
This is a turn-off!
This whole climate change movement is political, thus why it exclusively targets white, Western countries. Have a read of this statement from Extinction Rebellion’s Stuart Basden pretty much sums it up. It’s all about self-loathing, ancestral guilt and political and social power:
https://medium.com/extinction-rebellion/extinction-rebellion-isnt-about-the-climate-42a0a73d9d49
Once upon a time children, there were governments in possession of so called scientific fact (turned out to be fiction) that diesels were the saviour of the planet and that anyone with an iota of common sense would rush out and buy a diesel car and to help you, they would give you incentives, and so it came to pass that many people did just that.
. All of a sudden the same governments threw their hands up in horror and without a hint of an apology demonised those very same citizens by fining them for having bought those cars in the first place, because we are all now going to die. In the meantime they took this heaven sent opportunity to fine those nasty people for being so stupid to listen to them in the first place.
Buy electric they all said, recharge your batteries with lovely jubbly renewable electricity and the planet will be saved…………………….Hang on a tick! What about charging points. Home charging currently takes around 7 hours using a 3 pin plug, a little less with a more powerful charger. Public fast chargers around 30-40 mins, er, and how many cars are there on the UK roads? (+ commercial vehicles). There will simply never be enough charging points to serve the masses and unless someone comes up with a revolutional battery that can be charged at home in 5 minutes, we are all in for a really nasty surprise (and no, I have not forgotten those people who have no drives and only street parking is available to them)
James May (Top Gear) predicted many years ago that the only feasible answer was converting to hydrogen power. I agree with him. Electricity is far too vulnerable to external forces to be a long term solution for transport. But hey, we are governed by stupid politicians who are taken in by self interested organisations who only want to sell them their ideas to make a few bob. That children is what makes the world go around …………and around. and in the end we all died unhappy.
Please remember that to produce hydrogen for use as a vehicle fuel, one needs electricity to split water into its component parts.
Yes Iain, but this can be done elsewhere using wind and solar power.
John, this is a wonderful fairy story. Very artistic. Yes, charging is the big spanner in the spokes. Terraced houses? Long charging times? It is just not going to work for the masses. We can see this. Are we talking fuel cells?
I’m sure if the councils had more money they would spend it on new ev’s but the with the amount of vehicles involved it would flood the secondhand market and they would be worth pennies and not pounds, to counter that they would put up the council tax which we would all be pleased at
Come on Geoff… they increase Council tax up to the maximum limit before triggering a consultation with the taxpayers and then extract more money by loading up the bill with more and more and ever increasing precepts….
Compared with the number of 38 ton diesel trucks on the road the number operated by local authorities is miniscule. No-one seems to mention AD BLUE which I believe when injected into the exhaust system of diesel vehicles converts the combustion products to Nitrogen and Water. This must be environmentally perfect as 4 /5ths of our plant is covered by water and the atmosphere consists of 4/5ths nitrogen,why all the fuss over diesel powered vehicles when the solution is obvious.
Have you heard of using ammonia as a fuel? (NH3 or 4). NO CO2 or particulates! Can be produced by Fertiliser companies.
What are they supposed to do you knobheads? Run dustcarts etc on batteries? Doesn’t work you wankers! Get a grip!
They are supposed to be working for us and helping us…… Acrewing us over for the vehicles we drive then using similar powered vehicles themselves is two faced to say the least.
Typical of bureaucratic hypocrisy! Why are the private motorists being penalised? What about the the Lorrie,trucks, buses, coaches, trains,ships and aeroplanes??Why is the exploration for new oil fields still happening?
Because we still need the petroleum products other than and as well as motor fuels?
I have to say that walking past or through bus stations is far less choking than it used to be.
In fact cecil.. I looked it up for you…
Over 6,000 items are made from petroleum waste by-products including: fertilizer, linoleum, perfume, insecticide, petroleum jelly, soap, vitamin capsules.
So we should immediately stop producing all these then should we?
This is a non story. Councils cannot simply bin existing diesel vehicles as they will be blamed for wasting taxpayer money. A significant number of new electric vans are out in 2020/1 and so they will switch when fleets are renewed.
We have electric rubbish trucks in Sheffield where I live. The council has a few electric vans. It will take time, just as normal people will switch gradually. Personally I could never go back to a fossil fuel car. Too expensive to maintain, slow, can’t refuel at home and in this weather, preheating and defrosting car from my phone is something that never gets old.
Great stuff!
https://sheffieldnewsroom.co.uk/news/electric-bin-lorry-is-a-green-world-first-in-sheffield/
And right at the end of the article there are 4 diesel cars being advertised!!!
The four petrol ones sold immediately.
Modern day diesel engine vehicles are fitted with exhaust particulate filters and it might be of some consideration to consider why grass and bush verges along roadsides seem to flourish, its because of the carbon dioxide emitted by the passing traffic is drawn in and pure oxygen is emitted so, it be some advantage to have certain exhaust emissions floating about.
What total and utter BS. It’s because it isn’t cut regularly and grows in spite of all the soot, brake dust, salt and household rubbish dumped on it constantly.. Perhaps you could buy some verges and grow vegetables on it to eat?
Larf! Nature is very resilient! Years ago I remember my father asking: “Do you see dead trees in London city, because of all the pollution?” The answer is NO.
They are under pressure to be PC, by environmental lobby groups, but the only practical fuel is diesel. Air pollution has been hyped beyond reality, as yet another tool to get us to accept draconian energy policies in line with the crazy notion of “Net Zero Carbon”. They really mean CO2, but “carbon” sounds so much more “dirty”.
The whole sham was shown up recently at the UN climate conference in Madrid. All politicians make the appropriate noises on CO2 etc, but when it comes down to the cost of overturning completely our current transport and energy systems, they start to hedge a little.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch as it were, the climate is doing nothing out of the ordinary, in spite of every weather event being labelled as “climate change”. UK emissions are a little over 1% of global total. Since 1988 they have fallen by 32%. Asia is 48% of Global emissions and has increased by 210% since 1988, China is 28% of global emissions and has increased by 319% since 1988. Total Asia emissions will continue to increase for many years to come, as more coal fired power plants come online. We are being suckered.
I hope all local authorities charge themselves when one of their vehicles enter the ulez. This includes fire, police and ambulance unless on blue light call. My car is diesel but excempt ulez according to TFL so expect same in all other places when they introduce ulez. Time will tell.
All the council’s are hypocritical having diesel vehicles and until someone invents a EV other substitute it will be so for many years to come.
Electric fleet feasible? Very low.
However every council can and should immediately fit Diesel Particulate Filter’s to their vehicles.
Coupled with recycling of waste I now have 4-6 vehicles collected ting my waste and this has increased the hazardous tailpipe emissions that my neighbours and I must ensue, this is unacceptable.
It’s about time both central and local governments used joined up thinking across all their policy decisions.
As for recycling, let’s go back to one bin for all and keep a few people employed in the waste repayment centres and loose a few on the refuse carts and cut down on the emissions we have to breath..
Government policies = couldn’t organise a Pi** up in a brewery.
From 2009 and onwards, DPFs were mandatory. Any vehicle needing a retrofitted DPF would probably require a new engine and modifications to the entire vehicle structure costing more than the vehicle is worth. Here in West County Durham we have 2 refuse vehicles collecting waste. One for non recycling waste and one for recycling.
just changes to the engine mapping system in the ECUs for most would make DPFs etc workable, and actually fitting of the filter.
Our local council is not one of the anti-motorist mafia who use trendy eco causes to disguise their dash for your cash. However, our council has embraced a few electric vehicle for urban duties, as they are rubbish at any serious work. One day we will wake up and realise that electric is not the golden solution that we have been lead to believe. Just as we were sold on diesel, by an inept government that was lied to be those with vested interests, electric is going to bite hard, you know where. Is it not ironic that Switzerland’, the most eco anal country in Europe, has embraced HYDROGEN, whilst we have buried our head in the sand and followed the EU’s dictate on future fuels.
It will take years to replace diesels, particularly Councils, the money is not there, it’s needed for more important projects, too much emphaisis on “Green”, as a country we are progressing, look at a map of the world, see our size by comparrison. Be realistic, let common sense prevail.
Can someone explain to me why we cannot convert water into its component parts oxygen and hydrogen and use one to ignite in the other without dangerous emissions?
You need energy to do it and you can if you can generate clean electricity. Most “renewables” are relatively cleanish if you ignore their manufacture and maintenance. Nuclear is often heralded as clean but tends to generate a bit of incredibly toxic waste. Current electric vehicle batteries also have a large component of toxicity in their manufacture. Steel and plastic are also “dirty” to make.
I have driven a well maintained diesel vehicle for the last 35 years ( not the same vehicle you need to understand).
I challenge myself to get lower emissions on each successive MOT. To date I have achieved this. Last year my cars emission level was lower than on its first MOT ten years ago.
How am I harming the planet & how many diesel engined vehicles that belch out smoke – (buses for one) are removed from our roads per year in the interests of maintaining a clean environment ?
Walking is cleaner. Using horses less so.
Most of the vehicles operated by local councils are commercial vehicles. Electric versions of these vehicles are rare, have very limited range and are far more expensive than their diesel equivalents. Until these vehicles become cost effective, there will be no incentive to change.
A bit off key here but…. has anyone noticed the ecretion rebellion 13 days of protest before Christmas? or have they all flown off on holiday?
And, a few weekends ago there were ectinction rebellion protests in Manchester and London… Manchester had 9 people and London had ten…. Now that same weekend there were “Santa Dashes” in both London and Glasgow, which were supported by over 10,000 Santas plus the spectators who enjoyed the day and rainsed money for deserving causes..
If we look at the numbers we see that at a ratio of over 500 – 1 people preferred to come out to support an imiginary fat man supposedly spending one night a year housebreaking with his “flying” reindeer, than support the Repulsives rebellions protest……. go figure!
Ms Board, PLEASE carry out comprehensive research before posting more provocative and inaccurate articles like this. I am a retired Council engineer whose work has included delivering public-sector EV charging points. I understand the RULES that constrain Councils’ spending and, as the son of an engine designer, have a reasonable appreciation of the pros and cons of alternative power units for vehicles.
First: Councils’ funding and spending rules. Over 80% of each Council’s annual funding comes from the Government, which apportions it to particular purposes such as education, social services, waste collection and/or management, housing, highways, parks, museums, planning and development control, etc. Some types of Council don’t have all of those functions, but all Councils MUST deliver the best value for money that they can achieve for their statutory functions. Inevitably, transport and other mechanised equipment is essential.
How can Councils maximise the value-for-money of their vehicle and equipment fleets? An obvious option is to aim to use the most economical vehicles and plant, both in terms of whole-life costs and consumables. In this respect, diesel-engined vehicles are 33-50% more fuel-efficient than their equivalent petrol-engined models. Those lower fuel costs are a no-brainer to any fleet manager. Most Councils’ vehicle fleets are made up of commercial vehicles, which are almost exclusively diesel-engined anyway. If a Council serves a compact urban area (I worked for Leicester City Council), electric vans are now available that will achieve a working day’s mileage and can be recharged overnight but, so far, they have tended to be low-payload vehicles. Councils that serve rural districts and whole counties would encounter range issues with pure EVs on a daily basis.
The second major value enhancement is to look after the vehicles and make them last as long as possible. It’s not unusual now for Councils’ fleets to include 10-12 year old vehicles. Therefore, the entire fleet will take 10-12 years to be replaced. Each year’s fleet replacement plan must be approved by the Councillors and constrained within the Council’s overall budget. It’s the norm to buy specialised equipment for continuous long-term use and hire top-up resources as required. Leasing has proved not to be cost-effective.
Third, many Councils have “contracted out” key services to commercial operators, often for long terms. For example, Leicester’s domestic refuse collection contractor is Biffa, on a 25-year contract that includes the construction and operation of a waste recovery and recycling plant. The City Council now has two small (non-HGV) refuse collection/compactor vehicles that support the street cleaning service. All the other “bin lorries” seen in the city are either Biffa’s or commercial trade waste collectors’. Most of Biffa’s fleet is Euro V or VI vehicles. The others are often older. In the same vein, the Government forced the City Council to sell off its municipal bus operation many years ago. All bus services in the City are now run by commercial operators, with very few routes qualifying for subsidies. I think their fares are extortionate and set by collaboration, not competition. They are certainly a deterrent to many potential customers, who vote with their cars.
Is any Council hypocritical to aim to improve its environment (a statutory duty) while using the most economical available means to deliver its statutory services? I respectfully suggest not. Both are obligations imposed by Government. As and when alternative power systems become as capable as and more cost-effective than diesel engines, Councils and commercial fleet operators will switch to them. In the meantime, Councils’ own vehicle fleets are a tiny fraction of the quantity of commercial vehicles on the nation’s roads. Councils are soft and easy targets for ignorance.
I recently read a report that a Nissan leaf with a range of 180 miles only achieved 80 mile in the depth of a very cold spell,
Wake up dozy folk!!! Electric vehicles are good, but so are hydrogen powered ones. If you drive a diesel powered vehicle YOU ARE PERSONALLY ADDING TO THE MISERY people with asthma and various other bronchial diseases. There’s no getting away from that fact and there is now way of sweetening it. If you argue that diesel is cheaper for you – you are expecting those millions of people with bronchial conditions to pay for it. So much for the season of good will to all men (and children and babies and old people) you mean and selfish person. And that’s without going into all the environmental damage future generations will have to pay for. Your selfishness staggers me.
When we ring for a taxi, why don’t we all start asking them tn send only their electric or hybrid taxis to pck us up
If we all don’t get on board stop moaning and do our bit to try stop climate change nature WILL flood, burn, and blow us off the planet, we dont have a choice, anymore
it will burn anyhow. its done it before (before humans were on the planet in fact) and will again. its the natural planetary cycle of earth. after it burns there will be a 3rd ice age. History has proven this to be true.
But to be fair, if electric alternatives were available, replacing all of a council’s fleet with EV’s would be very expensive, and the old vehicles would only be worth peanuts as trade-ins. Where would that money have to come from? Other local services, of course.
Britain’s share of global climate change gases is fractionally more than what can be measured accurately. No matter how much the government interferes with our lives the net climate effect will be nearly immeasurable. So get off our backs!
It has always been the case that diesels used for short journeys emit many pollutants. They’re fine used for long journeys – eg coaches, lorries – provided they’re well maintained. But to use a diesel Range Rover to go to the local shops is silly. Petrol is better for short journeys as the engine warms up quicker, but better still is electric. However who can afford to run three cars for different needs? The compromise has to be petrol or hybrid.
City councils are money making machines and people who run them as you mention are bunch of hypocrites.