Sustainability award for Chelmsford Council’s staff travel

Chelmsford City Council has become only the first ever local authority to be awarded a national gold-level accreditation for encouraging its staff to travel to work in a sustainable way.

The Modeshift National Sustainable Travel Awards recognise inspirational schemes, projects and plans that support and encourage sustainable travel. At the awards ceremony in Leicester on Thursday 7 November, the Council was presented with the Gold award in the Business Travel Plan category, becoming the first council ever to be given this accolade.

The Travel Plan sets out all the authority’s actions and initiatives to encourage its staff to use sustainable transport methods to get to, from and between workplaces.

In the past year, the Council has improved its cycle parking, provided bicycles for travelling to meetings and site visits, expanded its car sharing scheme and offered bicycle maintenance workshops. It also holds annual events such as ‘pedometer challenges’ to encourage staff to walk to work and offers showering and changing facilities for anyone who cycles or jogs in. To reduce the number of staff driving into work, the Council is currently exploring using electric pool cars for employees to use to travel to site visits and meetings where there is need.

Councillor Marie Goldman, Cabinet Member for Connected Chelmsford, said, “Chelmsford City Council has pledged to make all its activities net-zero-carbon by 2030. As a major employer, we have a duty to make it as easy and attractive as possible for our 1,000 staff to get to work without contributing to city-centre congestion or to carbon emissions by driving here alone.”

To find out more about the Modeshift Awards, please visit www.modeshift.org.uk/modeshift-awards.

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