Fleets of diesel-powered vans deliver internet shopping to homes around the county every day.

And now one county councillor has suggested they should all be required to convert to electricity, as part of a drive to improve air quality and act against climate change.

Liberal Democrat councillor Nick Hollinghurst suggested the move during a debate on air quality and climate change at the county council on Tuesday (March 26).

He said the consequences of climate change were so enormous and such a threat to life that they could not be taken too seriously. And he said the county council had got to ‘increase its game’.

He suggested investigating whether a by-law could be introduced so all delivery vehicles had to run on electricity was just one of the things the council could do.

“I think we need to recognise that there are changes happening in society that are going against what we are trying to achieve,” he said.

“I talk about things like ‘clicking’ to get your vegetables.

“The economy is based on the internet, but in fact it is actually based on lots and lots of diesel powered delivery vans, cluttering up our streets and blocking our lanes.

“We need to take some drastic steps, that might even hurt in the short-term, in order to achieve the larger goal of a safer future and a cleaner environment – really drastic things like a by-law requiring delivery vans to be electrically controlled.”

Cllr Hollinghurst suggested similar action could be taken to improve bus emissions too.

“We really must consider in the future serious, visible and occasional painful actions – otherwise, in the words of Dad’s Army, ‘We are doomed!’.

The issue of air quality and climate change was tabled at the meeting on Tuesday (March 26) by Labour group leader Cllr Judi Billing.

She pointed to research that suggests there are just 12 years to act on climate change, if global temperature rises are to be kept within the recommended 1.5C.

And she called on the county council to join with other councils in declaring “a climate emergency”.

She had wanted council leader Conservative councillor David Williams to write to the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs to provide necessary powers to make local action on climate change easier.

And – among other measures – she had called for the council to draw up a climate change policy, including an action plan to reach a zero carbon emissions target by 2030.

During the debate, council leader Conservative Cllr  David Williams pointed to the county’s emerging Air Quality Strategy, as well as the 32 per cent reduction the council had made to its carbon footprint.

And he said he was keen that the council continued to build upon its existing strategies.

He also highlighted responses being made at a government level, such as the Delivering Clean Growth strategy and the Clean Air Strategy 2019.

And in an amended motion – that was not backed by Labour or Liberal Democrat councillors – Cllr Williams committed to working with partners across the county and the wider region to reduce emissions.

That motion also included a request that Cllr Williams write to the Secretary of State welcoming a commitment to enable greater local action on air pollution, as well as a commitment to working with the Local Government and the Hertfordshire LEP in this area.

It also contained a request that the council develop a refreshed energy strategy and a climate-resilient communities strategy.

But it did not include the measures that had been identified in the initial Labour motion.

During the debate Liberal Democrat Cllr Steve Jarvis suggested that the Conservative amendment to the motion was “complacent”. And he said the council should make it clear what it aspired to achieve.

But Conservative councillor Cllr Tim Hutchings, executive member for public health and prevention, said that – once politics was stripped out of it – councillors were in danger of being in violent agreement.

And commenting on the issue, he said: “Do we need to do something about it? Of course we need to to something about it. And I think this paper and this amendment actually starts to do that.

“Is it a total panacea? No we don’t pretend it to be so. But it is a start  and we think its a a sensible start which gives some structure to our strategies.”

At the end of the debate, the motion – as amended by Conservative council leader David Williams – was agreed. However it was not backed by Labour or Liberal Democrat councillors.