Wakefield taxi drivers urged to buy electric cars as part of carbon neutral efforts

The district council has passed a measure allowing cabbies to drive a plug-in hybrid car until it reaches the age of 12.

Previously, taxi drivers had to give up any such vehicle after it became 10 years old.

The local authority says it hopes the move, which was requested by local drivers, will encourage them to switch from using cars with higher emissions.

Speaking at a licensing committee meeting on Wednesday, council officer Dave Hollis said: "The reason we're looking to extend the age limit is after a request from the trade.

"It also supports the council's aim to become carbon neutral by 2030.

" do believe at the moment we don’t have any plug-in hybrid vehicles on the fleet and we’d like to see that change.

"We think this would be a good incentive for drivers and the trade to purchase this type of vehicle."

Councillors voted in favour of the move.

Committee chair Martyn Johnson said: "I think it will be a good incentive to entice the licence holders to purchase them because it is a smaller (carbon) footprint than either petrol or diesel cars.

"I just hope it’s built into legislation that they have warning systems when they're doing 20 miles per hour or below, so people can hear them moving round the district and so they don’t bump into people."

Local Democracy Reporting Service