New electric street sweepers deployed to help spruce up Sunderland

The new street sweepers have joined Sunderland City Council’s fleet of more than 450 vehicles and are helping to raise the bar by brushing, spraying and washing as they go.

With their small turning circle the sweepers can access more areas and, as well as brushing up the highways, they can be adapted for use as winter maintenance gritters, snow ploughs, and as mini-tractors for load carrying.

The vehicles include the council’s first electric (EV) sweeper as part of a move towards an-all electric fleet.

The council currently has 44 EVs – ten per cent of the total fleet – and their number is increasing as the city moves to become carbon neutral by 2030.

Council deputy leader and cabinet member for clean green city, Cllr Claire Rowntree said: "These new vehicles are a great new asset for so much of our street and environment works.

"It’s very much one of this council’s top priorities to ensure we have a clean, green, maintained environment and the new sweepers bring many extra benefits for all this work.”

She added: "Investing in these sweepers shows how this council is committed to this work but it's important to add that we can’t achieve this alone. Everyone has a part to play in keeping Sunderland clean by disposing of waste and litter responsibly so that, together, we have and are seen as a tidier and greener city."

The ten new sweepers, alongside two spares, replace older technology and are due to spend more than 20,000 hours on duty over the next year.

They will be used across Sunderland from the city centre, local centres in Washington, Houghton and Hetton, or work after SAFC home matches and during major events.

This year the council will be spending around £4m running, replacing and updating its sweepers, vans, refuse collection vehicles, and grass-cutters and gritters.

Director of environmental services, Marc Morley said: "As we move forward on lowering our carbon emissions and having more renewable energy sources, we gave consideration to getting an EV sweeper.

"We can now monitor its performance as we expand our low carbon fleet.”