The carbon management plan sets a target to reduce CO2 emissions by 11,800 tonnes by the 2016/2017 financial year, while cutting £750,000 of cost from its 3,000-strong grey fleet and £371,000 from its operations fleet.

External funding has allowed the council to replace 13 diesel pool cars with three fully electric cars and ten plug-in hybrids, which will be available for use with grey fleet drivers as the company looks to cut cost and CO2.

OLEV funding of £225,000 will install a network of six strategically placed charging points across Wiltshire, close to major routes and suitable rest points, while an additional £180,000 will extend charging infrastructure to the council’s own car parks for staff, visitor and public use.

Meanwhile to further address the issue of grey fleet usage, a Corporate Driving at Work Policy has recently been issued and the council is looking to reduce overall journeys to cut costs and environmental impact, including the use of a travel hierarchy. As a result, between 2012/13 and 2013/14, Wiltshire Council reduced its CO2 emissions for grey fleet by 120 tonnes whilst driving accidents fell by 6%.   And in lin with its plans for reduced costs and increased safety, the council is running a trial of in-cab driver behaviour devices on 20 of its light commercial vehicles, with savings already being seen. If successful, the technology will be rolled out across the rest of its 100 operations fleet.