A NIPPY fleet of electric delivery bikes will soon be darting across the borough after Colchester Council secured £137,000 funding.

The authority will use the Energy Saving Trust grant to buy 25 eCargo bikes and five eTrailers.

Vehicles will then be used by three council teams and ten community organisations to carry out their daily activities, deliveries and collections around the town.

The zero-emission vehicles will play a key role in helping the authority deliver on its pledge to go carbon neutral by 2030 after its declaration of a Climate Emergency last year.

The community organisations who will use the bikes include Wivenhoe Town Council, Colchester Bike Kitchen, Norwegian Bakers, Fisher Jones Greenwood/Charter Court and the East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust.

Martin Goss, councillor responsible for waste, environment and transportation, said: “If the climate emergency wasn’t reason enough to look at greener transport systems, the coronavirus crisis has forced us to think about other ways to travel and for businesses to move goods from A to B.

“Now is the time to seize further opportunities to reconfigure our roads and public spaces for safer walking and cycling, which in turn will lead to cleaner air, less congested streets and healthier lives.

“Sustainable methods of transport, such as eCargo bikes, are a great way for the council, businesses and other organisations to support this activity and reduce our collective carbon footprint, as their effect is immediate.”

Colchester Council was one of 18 authorities to secure the funding from the Energy Saving Trust scheme, which is funded by the Department for Transport.

Tim Anderson, head of transport at the trust, said: “eCargo bikes are an attractive low carbon transport solution which offer important benefits, most impressively fuel cost savings and contributing to improved local air quality.”