The cars will be used by the authority’s housing and environment departments for day-to-day duties including the courier service, surveyors’ site visits, site inspections as well as to attend meetings.

They are operating under a pilot scheme which, if successful, may see more such models introduced to the council fleet. 

Phil Walton, strategic and performance director at the council, has taken the lead on its carbon reduction programme. He said ‘We have a strong environmental and carbon reduction policy and the introduction of electric cars ties in with our aim to reduce our carbon footprint by 50% by 2015/16.

‘Staff travel contributes to our carbon footprint and one of the ways we can help to reduce that is through the use of electric cars. We have already received very positive feedback from staff that have used the vehicles and we hope to be able to add more electric cars to our fleet in the future.’

As well as reducing its environmental impact, the council is claiming significant cash savings, too. Its figures show that charging the LEAF for a 76-mile journey costs £2.88 in electricity, while filling an equivalent petrol-engined car for the same journey would cost £10.53.