Nottingham City Council Introduces Electric Minibuses for Children
Children using Nottingham City Council’s passenger transport service are now benefiting from five new electric minibuses. One of the buses has solar panels on the roof to help recharge the battery. If these vehicles are a success, there are plans to replace the rest of the minibuses fleet!
The council worked with LDV, the minibus manufacturer, and Courtside Conversions to make sure the vehicles accommodated the specific requirements of children with special educational needs and disabilities who attend Oakfield School. This is in response to concern about the impact of harmful emissions on these children during their travel to school.
Councillor Adele Williams, the council’s Portfolio Holder for Transport, said: “We’ve been concerned about the impact of transporting special educational needs children to school at peak times, due to the harmful emissions from the van and the effect on the children’s health.
“Loading these vehicles with children who are wheelchair users is always a concern due to the time the vehicle has to idle while keeping it warm in the winter months. All the time the vehicles are throwing out emissions at the level of our passengers.
“As the type and standard of electric vehicles has increased over recent years, we were pleased to find an electric minibus that our fleet team felt was suitable. A lot of these children have respiratory issues and therefore to have a zero emissions vehicle collecting them is fantastic.”
This follows the council’s purchase last year of the first electric street sweepers and cage tippers in the UK, which are now regularly in use in the city. More than 30% of Nottingham City Council’s vehicles are now ultra-low emission.