GREEN MEANS GO...
GLASGOWELECTRIC VEHICLE TAXI DRIVERS DEMAND MORE CHARGING POINTS
There has been a call for more EV charging points in Glasgow to cope with demand. Cur- rently there are more than 2,500 EVs in Glasgow but it’s estimated that 35,000 could be on the roads by 2022. Last year the Scot- tish Government launched a £1m fund to help convert engines and ex- hausts of taxis, HGVs and micro-business-
es to comply with the city’s low emis- sion zone (LEZ) targets of 2023. Although Glasgow has 136 charging points, only ten of those are rapid charging and only three of these are located within the low emission zone. Gary Bowers be- came the first owner of an electric taxi in Scotland in 2018 and he believes that in- vestment is urgently
Some of the charg- ers that are avail- able, you’ve got to pay to access them, even though using the charger is free.” Gavin
Thomson,
EV taxi drivers have called for more charging points
needed. He said: “The more electric cabs that are on the
road, the more peo- ple want to use these
chargers.
from Friends of the Earth Scotland, said: “There is a lot still to be done to increase the amount of elec- tric cars we have in Glasgow – we need a huge expansion of charging points.” Transport secretary Michael Matheson
said: “Scotland has got the most ambi- tious climate change targets in the world. We have a range of funds in place to support
people
looking to purchase an ultra-low emis- sion vehicle.” Glasgow City Coun- cil is planning on doubling the am- ount of charging points – but as yet it is not known how many will be rapid chargers.
MAYOR CALLS ON GOVERNMENT TO HELP GREATER MANCHESTER BUILD BACK BETTER’
Greater Manchester (GM) is calling on the Government to support its plans to ‘build back better’ and help to tackle air pollution as the city-region sets out ambitions green
for a economic
recovery. Coach and Bus Week reports that the coronavirus pan- demic has seen air pollution levels drop by 30% and road traffic volumes fall by as much as 52% across GM as a result of the lock- down – and at the same time cycling journeys
have
increased by 42%. To build on this, and give
businesses
across the city- region the support they need to pre- pare for the intro- duction of a Greater Manchester-wide Clean Air Zone
54
(CAZ), the Mayor is calling on ministers to financially sup- port
the city-
region’s plans to rebuild the economy in an environmental- ly sustainable way. The financial pack- age would enable GM businesses and transport operators to make the shift to cleaner vans, lorries, buses,
taxis and
PHVs. Andy Burnham, GM Mayor, said: “It’s right that we now look to the future and how we can ensure that, as we recover from the pandemic, we build back better and greener. “We’ve seen tre- mendous shifts in travel patterns over the last few months, with reduced air pollution levels and we need to keep these benefits.
“To achieve that we need
dedicated
funding from Gov- ernment to support our businesses as they move to clean- er vehicles and to make sure our pub- lic transport net- work is capable of supporting
our
economy in a much more environmen- tally friendly way.” The ask of ministers is made up of: • £98m for a Clean Commercial Vehi- cle Fund for vans, HGVs,
and minibuses (in- creased £59m).
coaches from
• £16m for a Clean Bus Fund to sup- portthe retrofit of the existing bus fleet.
• A £28m Clean Taxi Fund for taxi and private hire dri- vers and operators to switch to clean- er vehicles.
• A new £10m hard- ship fund – dedi- cated to small businesses
and
sole traders who could face addi- tional
financial
concerns to help switch to compli- ant vehicles.
• Funding for 350 new EV charging points, doubling the size of the existing GM pub- licly owned charg- ing network, and for up to 600 electric buses by the mid-2020s.
Cllr Andrew West- ern, GM Green City-region Lead, added:
“Govern-
ment has provided some initial funding but we need certain- ty on the full funding package as soon as possible. so we can giveGM businesses, many of whom we know are struggling due to
the coronavirus
lockdown, the infor- mation they need to play a full role in a Clean Air Plan (CAP) public consultation and further develop- ment
of the
proposals. “In particular, I’d like to highlight the taxi and private hire trade, which has experienced some of the worst effects. Work is underway to look at the funding needed to support them on the road to a
zero-emission
future, and we con- tinue to work closely with the trade on proposals for mini- mum
standards
licensing across
GM, to make sure they are suitable and achievable.” GM local authorities intend to consult on proposed taxi and private hire mini- mum
licensing
standards alongside the GM CAP consul- tation, including a roadmap to when taxi and private hire fleets should be zero-emission capa- ble. GM last month an- nounced that plans to hold a statutory public consultation on the CAP had been
postponed
due to the pandem- ic. The consultation will be held as soon as is feasible. A report on the con- sultation will be brought
to GM
leaders when there is a clear timeframe for exiting lockdown and moving to the next phase of the coronavirus
res-
ponse. The delay to the
consultation
also means that the introduction of the Clean Air Zone has been moved back to 2022.
JULY 2020
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