Lewes District Council and Eastbourne Borough Council

After declaring a climate emergency, the council’s focus was on tackling a multitude of issues from the housing stock to transport. With transport being a large sector to decarbonise, they investigated trialling electric cargo (ecargo) transport to help cut congestion and pollution in the area.

They had previously implemented cycle to work schemes, transferred to working from home policies to reduce travel and use electric vans for the council’s fleet. Exploring ecargo bikes had been on the council’s radar for a while as something that would be beneficial to the area. Ecargo bikes could be easily implemented as a carbon saving alternative, particularly in the urban areas of Lewes and Eastbourne.

After being successful and receiving the grant from the Department for Transport (DfT) ecargo bike fund, a scheme was set up for a mixture of social enterprises both local and community driven enterprises and businesses to introduce a carbon-free delivery service.

The application form was simple and guidance from Energy Saving Trust was beneficial, with a quick response from the ecargo team. During the application process Lewes and Eastbourne council spoke to suppliers with the thought of purchasing once funding was secured.

A total of 13 ecargo bikes were received under the funding.

Some of the funding will go towards setting up ‘Get Bikery,’ an ecargo bike social venture for Lewes, with the aim of providing a carbon emissions free way to transport goods and items locally. The Get Bikery fleet should consist of eight ecargo bikes and trailers. The bikes can typically travel around 30 miles on a full charge, dependent on the power mode and load.