People power is on the right road
A community group in Shotts is on the road to further success.
Getting Better Together was one of six transport groups to secure new electric vehicles (EVs), funded from an award of £1.2 million by SP Energy Networks’ Green Economy Fund.
The EVs will be used to support vulnerable, disadvantaged and elderly people across Lanarkshire to access vital appointments and community activities.
Use of the vehicles will also be offered to NHS Lanarkshire to assist with the Covid-19 vaccination rollout.
The new EVs will be used to replace ageing and increasingly unreliable diesel vehicles that put the organisations’ vital community work in jeopardy.
Getting Better Together Shotts (GBT) has received two 16-seat Mellor minibuses and two sevenseater Nissan people carriers to assist them in providing community support services for early years, children and young people and the elderly.
Paul Bridges, Head of Transport at GBT Shotts, said: “We are delighted to be able to begin the move to an electric fleet that will reduce our CO2 emissions.”
In the long-term, the new vehicles will enable the group to reduce its carbon footprints.
The other community organisations being directly funded by SP Energy Networks’ Green Economy Fund are: Cumbernauld Action on Care of the Elderly; Glenboig Development Trust; WAT IF; Rural Development Trust; and Larkhall & District Volunteer Group – allowing eachof them to purchase 100 per cent electric vehicles that are low floor accessible.
The all-electric community vehicles are being funded as part of SP Energy Networks’ £20million Green Economy Fund, which supports the Scottish Government’s ambitious plans to meet climate change targets.
SP Energy Networks is also helping deliver up to 44 new electric vehicle charging hubs across Lanarkshire as part of Project PACE.
The scheme is being delivered through a strategic partnership between SP Energy Networks and the Scottish Government and so far has already provided 260MWh of energy to electric vehicles and enabled around 912,940 miles to be driven using clean, green transport.
Frank Mitchell, CEO at SP Energy Networks, said: “Scotland has ambitious plans to be the UK’s first net zero country by 2045, but we must ensure that no community is left behind.
“Helping communities build their own green economy and establish low carbon infrastructure is at the heart of our Green Economy Fund.”
For more i nformation on the Green Economy Fund and the projects it supports, visit : spenergynetworks.co.uk/pages/ green_economy_fund.aspx/