£370k to tackle air pollution
Slough: Cash to be used to promote electric vehicles
Slough Borough Council is set to a launch a ‘try before you buy’ electric taxi loan scheme after being awarded thousands from the Government to tackle air pollution.
Slough has been given £370,035 from the Government’s £5million Air Quality Grant.
The council said it would use the money for a project over the next two years to ‘accelerate the adoption of electric vehicles’ by licensed taxi and private hire vehicle operators.
A spokesman added: “The funding will be used for, among other things, a try before you buy electric taxi loan scheme for 50 drivers for 90 days and financial support for drivers already with an electric vehicle which will encourage other drivers to switch to electric vehicles.”
Transport minister Rachel Maclean said the grant would take the country ‘one step further to meeting climate change obligations’ and supporting economic growth.
She said: “From promoting anti-idling to increasing the uptake of electric taxis, the Air Quality Grant will help to clean up our air as we look to build back greener and lower our carbon footprint.”
Other neighbouring boroughs to benefit included Buckinghamshire
Council, West Berkshire and Wokingham Borough Council.
Buckinghamshire Council has been given £97,900 which it will use to pilot an employer sacrifice scheme to ‘encourage a shift to electric vehicles’.
The Air Quality Grant forms part of the wider UK Plan for Tackling Roadside Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2) Concentrations, which includes a £3.5billion investment into air quality and cleaner transport.
As a result of the NO2 plan, and alongside the
Air Quality Grant, the government has been working with 61 local authorities – and providing £880million in funding – to reduce NO2 concentrations through local plans that will deliver required improvements in the shortest time possible.