Wakefield Council bin lorries to be replaced with new diesel fleet after electric trial failure
Wakefield Council began trialling an electric refuse collection vehicle four years ago as part of efforts to become a carbon neutral authority.
A council plans to replace its “ageing” bin lorries with a new fleet of diesel vehicles after attempts to go electric were unsuccessful.
Wakefield Council began trialling an electric refuse collection vehicle four years ago as part of efforts to become a carbon neutral authority.
A meeting was told how the project had not worked and a decision had been taken to continue to use diesel trucks.
Members of the council’s environment scrutiny committee described the move as “disappointing” during a discussion on refuse collection.
Lou Redpath, the council’s service director for environmental services, said: “The lorries that we will be getting will be diesel. They won’t be electric.
“We haven’t come across any yet that have been successful.
“We are going to continue to investigate and look into this.
“But manufacturers are telling us they are not able to find anything sustainable enough to do this.
“We have looked at different fuels as well.
“We haven’t found anything successful yet but we aren’t going to give up on this.”
The council declared a climate emergency in May 2019 and pledged to be fully carbon neutral by 2030.
In 2022, senior councillors agreed to spend £4.9m to introduce zero-emission battery electric vehicles (BEVs) and an additional £1m on charging infrastructure.
At the time, a report said about 12% of the authority’s greenhouse gas emissions were produced by its fleet of 1,100 cars, vans and other equipment.
The document also said bin wagons and gritters would continue to use diesel due to “uncertainties with technology and performance” of larger vehicles but pledged to keep trialling an electric refuse vehicle.
Ms Redpath said: “We now have a very ageing fleet of refuse collection vehicles that causes us lots of issues in terms of trying to source parts for them, as well as keeping them on the road.
“That’s where we can incur missed bins and also potential breakdowns as well, so we are investing in that fleet.
“The whole fleet will be changed by this time next year.
“In the meantime, we have got some additional hire vehicles to make sure we can get on top of our rounds, in particular garden waste.”
Committee member Catherine Porritt said: “There was an electric vehicle and we know that different solutions have been tried to make it work.
“We know that HGVs are a major issue and we need Wakefield to be taking a lead on that.
“It is a disappointment that the fleet of refuse lorries that we run is going to be diesel.
“It would be good to think all our vehicles will be electric.
“Given the fuel crisis that we have now, that is a big concern.”
Ms Redpath said: “One of the other issues is the charging points.
“It was a consideration that, at some of our depots, there are not enough to be able to charge electric vehicles, particularly refuse collection vehicles.
“We are looking at this as part of a new deport modernisation programme.
“The depot infrastructure is proving very difficult at the moment to get the charging points in.”
Councillor Kevin Swift asked: “Will we be, for practical purposes, pretty much locked into diesel for the next 15 years if we are going to have a brand new fleet?”
Ms Repath replied: “I would say hopefully not that long. A refuse collection vehcile’s lifespan is normally five to seven years.
“One of the issues that we have in our district is the short journeys.
“It plays very heavy on the vehicles, where in some rural areas the vehicles can last a lot longer.
“In urban areas the vehicles get hit quite a lot from stopping and starting.”