Police and college charge ahead with car share
In the first scheme of its kind, Argyll College is to share an environmentally-friendly electric car with Police Scotland in Lochgilphead.
Argyll College UHI has added two new Nissan Leaf electric vehicles to its fleet of eight college cars as part of a long-term commitment to reduce the organisation’s environmental impact.
The idea came about when both the college and Police Scotland identified a need for a vehicle in Mid Argyll. At that point, Argyll and Bute Community Partnership suggested a collaborative approach.
The lease cost of the vehicles is 100 per cent funded by Transport Scotland’s Switched on Fleets funding, and estimates suggest an annual fuel saving in excess of £1,000 per car.
Cost savings are not the only benefit, though, as the vehicles have no tailpipe emissions of CO2, or detrimental air pollutants such as particulate matter and NOx.
The British-built new Nissan Leaf has won Best Electric Car at the WhatCar? 2018 awards.
Inspector Julie McLeish of Lochgilphead police office said: ‘We are delighted to be working in conjunction with Argyll College UHI to not only reduce the carbon footprint of our organisation but, in an innovative and collaborative way, to maximise the effectiveness of Transport Scotland’s grant funding.’
One of the new environmentally friendly cars – with a range of over 150 miles – will based at Lochgilphead and used by staff from both organisations.
Police Scotland will utilise the shared vehicle for a variety of non-emergency functions and college staff will use the vehicle to travel between the Argyll College UHI’s 10 learning centres.
College finance director Ailsa Close said: ‘The Energy Savings Trust provided advice and assistance which enabled us to access funding through Transport Scotland’s Switched on Fleets initiative and we estimate that we’ll save approximately £1,600 per year for each vehicle.
‘This allows us to ensure our financial focus remains on the provision of student services and facilities.’
Elaine Clark, Argyll College UHI head of property, said: ‘We have a long-standing ethos of promoting green technologies and we generate a significant proportion of our annual electricity needs ourselves with solar panels in our Oban, Lochgilphead and Dunoon centres.
‘With the growing network of charging points throughout Argyll, investing in electric vehicles makes sense for us.’