Mayo County Council is going green with the purchase of two Citroen Berlingos replacing old petrol and diesel vehicles. The first of a fleet of new electric council vehicles was launched on Wednesday, January 30, by the Chief Executive of Mayo County Council, Peter Hynes, at Aras an Chontae, Castlebar.
Speaking at the launch, Mr. Hynes said he was proud of the County Council for taking this step towards a greener future. He said: “When we talk about Mayo and the organisation we are trying to build here, sustainable, inclusive, prosperous and proud, well today I am proud that we are moving on to the next phase of the transformation of this organisation to being more energy efficient, greener, more environmentally aware and more environmentally friendly.
"The role that we would like to see this organisation take is one of leadership. We don't want to be following other people, we want to be green and we want to be seen to be green as it is an important aspect of our future in a whole lot of areas including Tourism and food production. Whatever it is we are doing, Green is going to be a big part of the future of this county. Well done to Martin Keating and all the team in Environment, as well as everybody else who had a hand in getting this project off the ground and over the line."
Cathaoirleach of Mayo County Council, Cllr Blackie Gavin, added: "I'm delighted as Cathaoirleach to see our chief executive launch the county's first electric vehicles. Well done to Martin Keating, Laura Dixon and all the staff of the Environment section on this great initiative. Let's roll it out and hopefully it is a successful scheme and we'll see more of these vehicles in the future.”
There are two charging points in front of Aras an Chontae, available to Mayo County Council and the General Public - and further dedicated charging points will be installed for Mayo County Council to charge the new vehicles. Each vehicle can cover up to 170 kilometres on a full charge. The vehicles can take up to 30 minutes to charge 80 per cent of their batteries at fast charge points or eight hours at regular charge points. The two vehicles are now operational and being used across the county with more electric vehicles expected to follow in the future.
