North Herts District Council vehicles are set to go green to help fight climate change.

NHDC's Community Safety team have gone green, with the use of new environmentally friendly vehicles.

The new Ultra Low Emission Vehicles (ULEV) are hybrids, switching between battery and unleaded petrol during use, and produce approximately 40g of CO2 gases per kilometre – well below the ULEV limit and much less than the team's previous diesel cars.

The ULEV cars are leased to the council and will significantly cut emissions produced by the team's heavily used vehicles, which can be hugely damaging to the environment.

As part of the Community Safety Team, NHDC's Environmental Crime Officers drive up to 250 miles a week across the district, following up on reports of fly-tipping, abandoned cars, graffiti and other environmental crime.

The decision to use ULEV vehicles was made by Council in July 2019 when a motion was passed declaring that all NHDC vehicles will be replaced with environmentally friendly vehicles when their leases are up for renewal.

Councillor Steve Jarvis, NHDC's Executive Member for Environment said: "The use of hybrid vehicles is part of our commitment to fight climate change, improve local air quality and build upon our pledge to achieve net zero carbon emissions in North Herts by 2030 as part of our Climate Change Strategy.

"We look forward to more of our staff using environmentally friendly cars for work in the future as more vehicle leases come up for renewal."