Sheffield Council to replace dozens of its polluting minibuses, cars and vans with greener vehicles

Minibuses used for transporting children will be replaced with cleaner vehicles to cut down on pollution in Sheffield.
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Sheffield Council is replacing its most polluting diesels with electric and cleaner fossil fuel vehicles.

The six year project will include replacing 150 old, polluting minibuses used for special educational needs transport. New electric vehicles will also replace existing cars and vans.

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Nitrogen dioxide, one of the biggest pollutants from old diesel vehicles, has been linked to increased incidence of stroke, heart disease and asthma. Prolonged exposure to air pollution has been shown to permanently damage children’s lungs.

Sheffield Council is changing dozens of vehicles in its fleet to greener and cleaner onesSheffield Council is changing dozens of vehicles in its fleet to greener and cleaner ones
Sheffield Council is changing dozens of vehicles in its fleet to greener and cleaner ones

Throughout the pandemic the fleet has transported 800 children with special educational needs or those who are extremely vulnerable to school.

They have taken people to their GPs’ surgery to receive their vaccinations, assisted local NHS patients and delivered school meals.

During the first two years of the programme, more than 350 of the oldest, most polluting vehicles have been replaced. Veolia and local firm Magtec have also repowered bin lorries from diesel to electric.

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Councillor Terry Fox, deputy council leader, said: “I’m really proud of our fleet – they’ve worked through the pandemic to make sure hundreds of children with special educational needs or those who are extremely vulnerable can get to school, every day.

“Where we can, we’re upgrading to electric vehicles. Electric suits the needs of our libraries, facilities managers and environmental health teams, but the technology isn’t suitable yet for our accessible special educational needs vehicles.”