Heated debate over oil fuel in Stratford but trucks dump the diesel

IT was billed as ‘greenwashing at its most terrifying’ at the start of the year but now Stratford’s refuse vehicles have dumped the diesel.

The potential switch to hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO) inflamed passions among district councillors in January.

The Cabinet meeting on 15th January backed the plan as a way to cut the council’s carbon footprint, even though the change to an alternative fuel looked set to cost some £200,000 a year more.

But the idea was not universally popular.

Conservative group leader Cllr Sarah Whalley-Hoggins (Brailes & Compton) said ahead of the meeting: “The Lib Dem proposals will see £1million of SDC council tax being spent on this green nonsense over their remaining term in office.

“The proposed benefits laid out by the Lib Dems is ‘greenwashing’ at its most terrifying.

“The impacts of manufacturing and distributing HVO currently does far more harm to the environment than using a fleet of up-to-date vehicles with much cleaner engines.”

But despite her misgivings and healthy exchanges of views in the months since, a council spokesperson said this week: “The district council can confirm that all the frontline refuse collection vehicles operating from the Stratford depot have used hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO) fuel in lieu of diesel fuel since mid-October.”

At the time of the Cabinet decision, council leader Cllr Susan Juned (Lib Dem, Alcester East) said: “There's no easy solution, but HVO can be a straightforward replacement for conventional fossil fuel diesel with no impact on operational requirements. It doesn't need specialist storage equipment and the vehicles won't need any changes; critically the HVO we'd be using will be produced from appropriately certified sustainable sources."

"This will be a temporary solution. Ideally in the future we will be able to get vehicles that run on biomethane or electricity.

“At the moment, this is out of the question due to the cost and our collection routes being longer than current battery technologies can support."

In 2019, the district council declared a climate emergency and announced three climate ambitions to achieve by the year 2030.

One of those is to become a Net Zero Carbon Council by 2025 and a carbon emissions report for 2021/2022 found that the council’s total carbon footprint was 3,293 tonnes of CO2.
The most significant contributor to that figure was the fuel used in the refuse collection vehicles, accounting for 1,147 tonnes of CO2 - 35 per cent of the council's overall carbon footprint.

In a statement issued after the Cabinet decision, a council spokesperson said: “The use of HVO as an alternative fuel has two main environmental benefits.

“Firstly, its use results in significantly lower carbon emissions when compared with diesel, with some reports stating that this can see a saving of up to 90 per cent.

“Secondly, it has lower particulate matter and nitrous oxide emissions than diesel. This means that HVO represents a less polluting fuel option and can reduce contributions to poor air quality levels in an area.”

In terms of the origins of the fuel, it added: “It is also proposed that any HVO used will be sourced from a Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation (RTFO) accredited supplier and second-generation fuels will be used.

“This will allow the environmental benefits of HVO use to be realised, whilst ensuring that it is as sustainable as possible.”