Electric bikes for enforcement officers as part of green drive

Civil enforcement officers in Adur and Worthing are leading the drive to become carbon neutral after making the pioneering switch to electric bikes.

NSL, who are contracted by Adur & Worthing Councils to enforce on and off street parking across the area, have invested in the technology as an alternative to petrol scooters.

As well as reducing emissions, the new bikes will allow staff to cover areas away from town centre such as Lancing, Findon and Southwick in a shorter space of time while saving money in running costs in the long-run.

It comes just weeks after the Councils declared a climate emergency, setting an ambitious target to become carbon neutral by 2030.

Other ideas being considered by NSL include adopting electric cars, using biodegradable parking ticket wallets and finding more sustainable alternatives to cable ties, which are used to display parking suspensions. 

Daniel Forbes, Client Account Manager for NSL, said: “NSL continues to look at ways of using electric power along with pedal power to reduce our reliance on the use of vehicles powered by fossil fuels.

“As a part of this strategy - and to help meet Adur & Worthing Councils’ goal, we have initially provided two EBikes for deploying staff on street. While this is only at its embryonic stage we hope they will eventually take the place of our moped fleet and reduce our reliance on cars for deploying enforcement staff. 

“The costs of fuel, maintenance and carbon footprint are a fraction of the mopeds we currently deploy. If the electric bikes trial works, we will look to further integrate these into our work here and other areas where we operate.

“We also continue to look at other initiatives to reduce our carbon footprint including using more biodegradable materials and will be taking delivery of our first fully electric vehicle later this year.” 

Adur & Worthing Councils have already made good progress on reducing carbon emissions by 30% between 2012 and 2019.

The adoption of the Climate Emergency last month has seen the Councils bring forward their carbon neutral target from 2050 to 2030. 

There is also a commitment to build on the SustainableAW programme, by transitioning to clean transport for all council services and operations, improving energy efficiency of council buildings, and installing renewable energy.

Councillor Emma Evans, Adur District Council’s Executive Member for Environment, said: “I’m pleased to see NSL adopt these steps which will not only improve parking enforcement across our area but also support our wider efforts to reduce carbon emissions across all the services that we provide directly and through external organisations.”

Councillor Edward Crouch, Worthing Borough Council’s Executive Member for Environment, said: “We are dedicated to showing leadership on this important issue of climate change, willing to take action and promise to play our part at a local level. While clearly we can't do this on our own, the more organisations who join in with this declaration, the more powerful the action will be.”