It’s no longer just the parks that are green in Barking and Dagenham – the cars used by the workers who keep them tidy are too.

As part of Barking and Dagenham Council’s £10million investment in new vehicles, four all-electric Renault Kangoo vans, which produce zero emissions, will be taking to the borough’s streets.

The council’s parks and maintenance managers will be using the vehicles to travel across the borough for day to day supervision and care of the parks, grounds maintenance and cemetery services.

The vans, which cost £17,000 each, can travel more than 100 miles on a single charge, meaning the new zero emission vehicles will cut down on fuel costs for the council and help save the environment.

We are proud to be able to take another step towards a cleaner, greener Barking and Dagenham.

Councillor Syed Ghani, Cabinet Member for Public Realm, said: “We made a commitment to cut our carbon emissions by 80 per cent by the middle of this century, so we are proud to be able to take another step towards a cleaner, greener Barking and Dagenham.

“We want to make sure there is a better quality of life for everyone, not just in the future but right now, and making simple changes like this will go a long way to protecting the environment and helping us reach our target.”

There are currently around 20 publicly available charge points for electric vehicles across the borough.