New electric vehicle charging points and recycling workshop in Peterborough

During his recent Ask the Leader session held on Zoom, leader of Peterborough City Council Cllr Wayne Fitzgerald was asked if new charging points will be introduced in the near future.

The Conservative leader said £450,000 had been committed up to April 2024 and that he had tasked officers with progressing this.

He added: “It’s certainly something that the council is keen to improve because we all recognise the climate change agenda. The council has committed to a carbon zero target by 2030.

“We have a small but growing network of electric vehicle charging points in the city centre. We’ve also got some funding set aside for that in the next two financial years.

“We put electric vehicle charging high on our agenda. We’re a green, clean council.”

Cllr Fitzgerald has also committed to setting up a council climate change and recycling workshop to “improve recycling rates” which are said to have dropped to 41 per cent - far below the council’s 65 per cent target.

He told the Peterborough Telegraph: “We have a net zero carbon goal by 2030 because the council takes climate change seriously. We recognise the climate change emergency and we’re already delivering.

“I want to up efforts so people feel confident we’re doing all we can.

“The workshops will be open to all members. I want to hear what people have to say about climate change and recycling.”

The council has recently taken on a lease for an electric car for the Mayor of Peterborough, while it has also ordered electric food waste vehicles and is trialling lower emission fuels for waste collections which could reduce the amount of carbon used by 80 per cent.