City council fleet cuts fuel and carbon footprint (Cambridge Liberal Democrats)

Cambridge Liberal Democrats <camlibdems@gmail.com>

City council fleet cuts fuel and carbon footprint

April 16, 2010 11:57 AM

Mike Pitt

Cambridge City Council's vehicle fleet has cut its fuel usage by 52,000 litres in the last year and reduced its CO2 emissions by more than 100 tonnes.

The savings, which represent a 9.6 per cent reduction, have been made on vehicles used by staff working in building services, waste management and stores and supplies among other departments.

Speed limiters fitted to vehicles, the use of fuel additives and changing over to gas oil have helped in the drive towards cleaner, more efficient vehicles.

The use of unleaded fuel has been cut from 35,000 litres in 2008/09 to just over 15,500 litres in 2009/10. Similarly, LPG has been reduced from 32, 500 litres to 5,800.

Mike Pitt, Cambridge Executive Councillor for Waste Management and Environmental Services said: "This is encouraging news. We have reduced our reliance on these fuels by making some simple changes and it has had a big impact on bringing down our carbon emissions.

"This reinforces our commitment to cutting our carbon footprint in any way we can and we will continue to look for other ways to achieve this."