Leicester City Council invests £69,000 in 16 Gardening Equipment for use in City Parks and Open Spaces

Leicester City Council have invested almost £69,000 in seven low carbon battery operated mowers plus nine further items of equipment including a strimmer, leaf-blower, hedge cutters and an electric sports line marking machine.

They are all being tried out on the city's public parks and open spaces. If proved to be successful, then the council hopes to phase out its current fleet of around 450 petrol and diesel-fuelled mowers.

The mowers join three specialised electric mowers bought in 2015 when commercial grade electric machinery first started to reach the market.

Annual petrol savings from three of the mowers bought so far will be 3,285 litres which would have producd 7,250kgs of carbon emissions each year. As well as emission savings, the new mowers should cost only 6p an hour to charge overnight on a standard plug socket. Once fully charged they can mow for up to 7 hours.