Litter picking, maintenance and even home visits could soon be carried out on e-cargo bikes, thanks to a new pilot by Highland Council.
Instead of travelling by car, three council services are trialling electric bikes.
The Inverness amenities team plan to use the e-cargo bikes for litter picking and maintenance around Bught Park. The city’s roads team are also trying out some pedal power, using the e-bikes for routine roads inspections.
The third pilot area is Fort William’s child health team, who will cycle to their home visits.
E-cargo bikes in action from next month
Councillors welcomed the e-cargo bike trial at today’s meeting of the climate change committee.
“It’s fantastic to see this, and I hope to see many more in future,” said Green party councillor Kate Willis.
The e-cargo pilot aims to offset fleet vehicle travel emissions with low-emission e-cargo bike travel.
It’s a partnership programme with Sustrans, who have provided Highland Council with three e-cargo bikes. Sustrans will also provide training and maintenance.
The one-year pilot will start at the end of April.
“This is a very exciting pilot and one which supports our wider net zero agenda,” said climate chairman Karl Rosie. “It also promotes low-carbon, active travel within our communities and the wider region.”
Schools in focus for further emissions reduction
Earlier in the meeting, members of the climate change committee discussed the considerable task of reducing emissions across the council area.
Highland Council faces a major challenge in reducing its vehicle fleet emissions, but a far bigger problem is its huge network of schools, offices and leisure facilities.
The council has more than a thousand non-domestic properties connected to utilities. Two-thirds of these are schools, so climate change bosses say those will be their primary focus in driving down emissions.
The climate change committee agreed to undertake more analysis of the energy performance of non-domestic properties, as well as host a series of workshops to thrash out the council’s net zero strategy.
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