IN a two-week trial, the ACT government has introduced an electric garbage truck in an “important step” towards a zero emissions fleet.
The vehicle will be based at the government’s Allara Street depot in Civic, which has previously been fitted with charging infrastructure following an earlier electric tipper truck trial.
City Services Minister Chris Steel says the new trial will provide an understanding of the features and benefits of using zero emissions technology for heavy commercial vehicles.
“Tackling climate change in the ACT means we need to electrify private and public transport as soon as we can,” says Minister Steel.
“Transport currently accounts for more than 60 percent of our harmful emissions.”
The trial follows the introduction of 12 battery electric buses that have joined the ACT fleet this year. Mr Steel says a further 90 e-buses are also on the way.
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![Teacher Vanessa Jones has been living in Higgins since 2001, and while she loves the area, she says she is “fed up” with the neglectful ACT government.
The Higgins shops have been completely abandoned, says Vanessa, preventing the opportunity for residents to have a community-centred space to socialise.
They only received bins nine months ago, she says, and requests for a water station and repairs to the bus station have gone unanswered.
“It’s very, very slow,” says Vanessa.
“I asked for the zebra crossing on Fullagar [Crescent] to be repainted, and we had to wait about six or nine months.
“That’s just such a long time… we pay a lot of rates.”
Vanessa says assistance from the government only seems to go to communities with time-rich and assertive communities, leaving places such as Higgins, where the majority of households have both adults working full-time and English may not be the first language of the family, at an automatic disadvantage.
“If you’ve got two people working, paying a mortgage, raising two or three kids, they don’t have the time,” says Vanessa.
Vanessa says the lack of attention quieter places such as Higgins is receiving is starting to look a lot like favouritism.
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