The futures bright, the futures green. Dumfries and Galloway council win award.
Written by admin on October 21, 2011
Dumfries & Galloway Council was awarded “Public Sector Fleet of the Year (above 250 vehicles)” at the 2011 GreenFleet Awards ceremony at Twickenham Stadium on Thursday 13th October.
The Awards, sponsored by O2, were attended by all the big names in the fleet industry, and presented by impressionist Alistair McGowan, who referred to them as ‘the Oscars of the fleet industry’.
This is the second award of this type the Council’s Fleet Management team has picked up within a matter of weeks. A few weeks ago they were named UK Transport & Fleet Team at the Association for Public Service Excellence’s awards in September.
The award recognised the work done by the team in implementing new IT systems to provide better management information and control of the fleet, the development of the Council’s corporate car pool, and in particular the introduction of Nissan Leaf electric cars, and the electric street sweeper in Dumfries town centre.
Chair of the Council’s Planning, Housing and Environment Services Committee, Roger Grant, said: “The award highlights some of the pioneering work our Council has been doing in piloting the use of electric vehicles. Whilst made possible by a grant from Transport Scotland, our Council’s early adoption of the technology was achieved through the determination of the Fleet Management team to make it work. This is also good news for our Carbon Management Plan, and our determination to reduce our Council’s carbon footprint.”
The Council’s Head of Integrated Transport and Commissioning, Harry Thomson, who collected the award at the Ceremony, added: “There is no doubt that councils, like all other organisations which rely on transport, will need to decrease their reliance on petroleum-based fuels in the future. The Electric Vehicles we have introduced give us the opportunity to test the technology in a real-world environment, and evaluate whether they can work for Dumfries & Galloway. I’m very pleased that my team’s work in being the first UK Council to introduce the Leafs and the electric sweeper has been recognised by GreenFleet.”
