The Council’s vehicle fleet’s carbon emissions have fallen by 40% since work began on switching to electric and low emission alternatives in April 2019.

The replacement programme is part of the Council’s commitment to becoming carbon neutral by 2030 and has seen 87 replacement vehicles purchased.

Next week Labour councillors on Ipswich Borough Council’s Executive are set to extend the temporary procurement process agreed in March 2019 to allow the Council to continue with the programme with minimum bureaucracy.

Councillor Phillip Smart, Ipswich Borough Council Portfolio Holder for Environment & Climate Change, says: “The more efficient process we have been using to purchase vehicles over the past year has allowed us to both reduce the timeline and cost of replacing our fleet, helping get higher emission vehicles off the road at a much quicker pace.

“Developing a cleaner and more energy-efficient fleet is an important part of our journey to reduce our carbon footprint and we need to make it as easy as possible to continue with the programme so that our local environment can benefit.”