A council has voted to buy diesel and petrol vehicles at a cost of £2.069m in order to improve its waste and recycling collection and disposal services for residents.

Rutland County Council has an ageing fleet of waste and cleansing vehicles, all of which have surpassed their operational use of seven years.

However, despite election promises to '…do what we can to make Rutlanders' lives the best they can be', and a partnership between the Liberal Democrats with the Green Party, the council may have no option but to buy the non-green vehicles.

This comes as Oakham Town Council declared a wildlife and climate emergency at a recent meeting.

Speaking to members of the cabinet at a meeting this week, Cllr Christine Wise (Lib Dem), portfolio holder for highways, transport and the environment, said: "It won't have gone unnoticed to members of the public and our residents in Rutland that our waste and cleansing vehicles are a tad unreliable.

"There is a life expectancy for these vehicles of seven years, and all of these poor things have been going a lot longer. They were refurbished prior to the extension of the last contract, but even this is now starting to fall victim to age; so it is imperative that our vehicles are replaced in April 2024, and unfortunately, because of their age, it is the majority of the fleet that will need replacing.

"Various options have been considered and fully costed: leasing versus purchasing, and various funding options as part of the purchase. However, taking into account depreciation over seven years, considerable cost saving can be made by the council purchasing the vehicles, lowering our contractual costs.

"As you would expect, with my environmental hat on, I have questioned why we would be investing in the same old dirty diesel trucks, but in fact life isn't that easy with vehicles this size trying to make the fleet greener as there would need to be a number of infrastructure considerations costed and put in place before we could do that, and it is proposed that we start to look at those almost as soon as we purchase these vehicles ready for the next time round this happens in 2031."

Members of the cabinet voted in private session and decided to support buying 15 new vehicles which will "allow significant cost savings" compared to leasing.