Hackney Council uses clean air day to highlight electric ambitions

Hackney electric fleet

Hackney Council has ‘reaffirmed its commitment to improving London’s air quality’ by outlining plans to encourage the use of electric vehicles in the borough.

Timed to coincide with the inaugural National Clean Air Day (NCAD) on 15 June, Hackney Council revealed its ambition for all households in the borough to be less than 500 metres from a vehicle charging point by 2025.

The council says that the expansion of the electric vehicle charging network, which has already seen the number of charging points increase from 16 at 12 locations, to 46 at 23 locations, reaffirms its commitment to improving London’s air quality.

Hackney Council has also announced that it will be using more than 40 electric vehicles by April 2018, ranging from pool vehicles used by street engineers, vans used by maintenance teams, buggies for parks staff and mobile community library vans.

NCAD was co-ordinated by the environmental change charity, Global Action Plan, who says that many of the UK’s cities ‘exceed the safe and legal limits for air pollution… mainly caused by road transport’.

The day saw local schools, hospitals and communities across UK cities run events and inspire local residents to act for their own health and the health of their children.

Hackney parking spaces

The new ‘parklet’ on Calvert Avenue

To mark the occasion, Hackney, Islington and Tower Hamlets councils also partnered with the Zero Emissions Network to launch a new ‘parklet’ on Calvert Avenue on the city fringe, which replaces two car parking spaces with seating, cycle parking and greenery.

The parklet was opened on NCAD by cllr Feryal Demirci, Hackney Council’s cabinet member for neighbourhoods, Transport and Parks, cllr Claudia Webb, Islington Council’s executive member for environment and transport and cllr Rachel Blake, Tower Hamlets’ cabinet member for strategic development and waste.

Cllr Feryal Demirci, said:

“Air pollution is a problem that we’re doing all we can to tackle, and this includes replacing diesel vehicles with electric ones in our fleet.

“We’re also increasing the size of electric vehicle charging points across the borough, which means that more residents will have easy access to low emissions charging.”


16 June 2017