SLOUGH Borough Council is considering swapping its fleet of vehicles that help keep the town clean to electric or to hydrogen as fossil-fuelled vehicles will soon be phased out.

The local authority’s contract with Enterprise, which supplies specialist vehicles that help clean the streets, maintain the grounds, or dispose of waste, is due to end in November.

The contract supplies 32 vehicles, which range from vans to gully suckers. The report presented to senior councillors at a cabinet meeting by Cllr Mohammed Nazir (Lab: Baylis & Stoke), lead member for the environment, states that are end of life and need to be replaced.

It excludes the fleet of waste collection trucks as the council bought these vehicles, which need to be replaced in 2027/28.

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Continuing to lease the 32 vehicles could cost the local authority, which effectively declared bankruptcy in 2021, £364,000 this year and may increase by another £76,000 next year.

The council is exploring if it should continue to lease or purchase new or second-hand vehicles and maintain them itself as continuing to lease may be deemed ‘unaffordable’ to the authority.

Speaking at the meeting on Monday, April 17, Cllr Rob Anderson (Lab: Britwell & Northborough), lead member for financial oversight, said the search should include electric or hydrogen-powered vehicles given that fossil-fuelled vehicles will soon be phased out.

He said: “We are only seven years away from the end of fossil-fuelled vehicles being available anyway and I think a lot of other councils have benefitted from having test vehicles to see how they can integrate or not integrate them into their fleet.

“I think it will be better for us if we were going to run a traditional fleet that we got some experience of the alternatively fuelled vehicles before we have to use them anyway, so we don’t end up going into them cold in six or seven years’ time.”

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Slough’s executive director of place and communities, Richard West, said they have tested electric vehicles before and have a few already, but he will see what’s operationally available.

He also said: “Our concern is that the vehicle market is very volatile. Prices have increased significantly, and we have budget constraints.

“We want to test the opportunity to buy second-hand versus leasing new vehicles and having them inclusive of maintenance, which is our preferred option operationally, but it may not be affordable.

“So, we want to hedge our bets and look at the two different approaches, alongside buying new. It’s difficult to buy new at the moment because the market is so difficult.”

A final recommendation if the council should continue to lease or buy will be made in July.