It means the Yorkshire authority now has 33 electric or hybrid cars and vans, used by its children’s homes, courier service, environmental health teams, to tackle anti-social behaviour, and for hire.

The latest procurement cost the council £458,380.

Wakefield recently trialled an electric bin lorry for 15 months, but concluded the vehicle did not have the capacity to cover its area. It will explore another trial.

The council has also been working with low emission transport research firm Cenex to consider options for decarbonising its large and specialist fleet vehicles, including electric vehicles, biomethane, hydrogen and processed vegetable oils.

It aims for all 500 vehicles in its fleet to be ‘ultra-low’ emissions by 2030.

Cabinet member for environment and climate change, Jack Hemingway, said: ‘Our small and medium vehicle fleet is going fully green and we’re now working to find the best clean energy solution for our larger fleet including our bin wagons and gritters.

‘Reducing the number of harmful pollutants in the air will improve our health and contribute to achieving our ambitious goal to be carbon neutral.’

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