Electric Vehicles, not Horses, for Refuse Collection.
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WE ARE rather surprised to find little. or nothing being done in the way of propaganda to counteract the obvious evil effect of the retrograde step taken by the Edmonton Urban District. Council in abandoning their system of collecting house refuse by means of electric vehicles and of reverting to horse transport under contract. The only .serious protest so far made is to be found in the article which appeared in the Municipal Vehicle issue of The Commercial Motor on June 5th, and in which the full facts of the case were given, with authoritative comparative figures, showing conclusively that the electric vehicles did their share of the work of collecting and transport to the tip, not only better and quicker, but cheaper. The costs per tonmile were 33* per cent, lower, whether taken per loaded mile or per ton-mile. The vehicles behaved
well and proved extremely reliable. • .
Naturally, advantage has been taken of the Council's decision by those to whom it is welcome, so no one will blame the Metropolitan and Home Counties Road Transport Contractors' Association for circularizing local authorities, calling attention to the facts with a view, of course, to discouraging municipal engineers from recommending the purchase of electric vehicles and to encouraging them to put he work out to contract But there is more at stake than this, and in discussing the decision of the Urban District. Council with borough surveyors and cleansing superintendents, we find that those among them who are well posted have no delusions about the matter. They say that, fortunately, political influences are not, as a general rule, brought to bear upon them. After careful investigation and a prolonged experiment, a neighbouring borough of Edmonton— Hackney to wit —has decided to enlarge its present fleet to a very considerable extent, and is building a garage to accommodate it.
We believe that reprints of our article of June 5th have been circulated by interested parties, but we would like to see a strong effort on the part of the. Electric Vehicle Committee to counteract Edmonton's retrograde decision.