Perth could become the first place in Scotland to trial a new green transport scheme, if funding is secured.
Councillors have backed plans to apply for almost £500,000 to establish a three-year pilot project to reduce air pollution caused by heavy goods vehicles.
Under the scheme, deliveries would be made to a central location on the Inveralmond Industrial Estate before being consolidated and brought into the town, ideally by an electric vehicle or by one with a ”cleaner” engine.
Backers of the scheme hope this would go some way to reducing the 1000 lorries that enter Perth every day.
Perth and Kinross Council’s environmental health manager, Tom Brydone, told members of the environment executive sub-committee on Wednesday what they hoped to achieve from the scheme.
”Through the feasibility studies which have been done over the past two years, we have spoken to various retailers to get information about the number of deliveries they get each day or week,” he said.
”We also asked about how these deliveries were organised, either through the shop itself or by the company.
”I am aware of shops within Perth who have upwards of 20 to 30 delivers per week. The air quality benefit of removing some of these vehicles from the city centre will be something we can measure over the period of the project.”
One of the main concerns raised came from Councillor Ian Campbell, who asked the committee if anything was being done to ensure that part loads in particular were reduced and if there were any figures to show just how many lorries did not have a full trailer.
Eric Guthrie of Tactran gave assurances that this would be the main focus of the project.
He said: ”If there are whole loads, we wouldn’t really see any benefit in decanting that on the outskirts of the town and bringing it in on a smaller vehicle. The work being done has already identified that there is a significant volume of part loads that could be consolidated.
”Full loads will probably continue to come into the town centre because that is the best way of doing it if they are using efficient vehicles.”
In total, the project is expected to cost around £1 million, although full funding will be sought with £482,500 from EU INTERREG and £232,500 from the Tactran Capital Programme, together with a Scottish Government Air Quality Grant of £250,000.
While the local authority has admitted that it would be ”difficult” to establish how well the scheme would be used, so far 96 retailer have expressed an interest in becoming part of it if it proves successful.
As part of an added incentive, the vehicles making the consolidated deliveries may also take away unwanted packaging for recycling, which will also ensure they never have an empty load.
Both Mr Campbell and committee convener Alan Grant suggested setting up a link between the logistics company that wins the tender to lead the project and the new recycling centre may be created at Inveralmond.
Head of environmental and consumer services Keith McNamara said: ”I would imagine a number of businesses would interested in providing skips and taking material away because there is a value there.
”I think we would be prepared to look at that if it was an available option.”
Giving his backing to the scheme, Councillor Callum Gillies added: ”This is the way forward and, for the people of Perth, this is going to be a boon to them to have good, clean fresh air to breathe every day.”