COUNCIL bosses have received a fleet of new vans which they say will help cut traffic pollution in York.

City of York Council's commercial services department have been handed 24 new greener, cleaner vans worth £300,000.

The dual-fuel Ford Transit vans which can run on petrol or LPG (liquefied petroleum gas) are being supplied by local dealer Polar Ford and mark the latest council initiative to make its stock of service vehicles more environmentally-friendly.

The vans are replacing a fleet of seven-year-old vehicles and will provide transport for Commercial Services' building maintenance section.

The department provides a repairs and maintenance service for York's 9,000 council homes.

The old vans all ran on a low-sulphur, cleaner version of diesel fuel, City Diesel, but running the new vans on LPG will help to slash damaging exhaust emissions even further.

Chris Slade, vehicle fleet manager for commercial services, said: "This is the latest stage of the council's planned vehicle replacement programme which takes into account the environmental impact of the council's fleet. We are delighted to be expanding the number of LPG vehicles as a proportion of our whole fleet.

"We are always looking at ways of cutting emissions and know that these new vans will play a significant role in the council's own contribution in improving air quality in York."

The new vans bring the total number of LPG-powered vehicles on the fleet to 60 together with three electric vehicles. The remaining 140, mainly medium to heavy-duty vehicles, that are unsuitable for LPG, will continue to run on ultra-low sulphur City Diesel.

The council has been operating dual-fuel vehicles since 1997 and the LPG fuel has been supplied since then to a tank at the council's depot provided by Jet Conoco.

Updated: 08:28 Tuesday, April 22, 2003