Purpose

The company ‘Starship Technologies’ offers an innovative, zero emission, last-mile grocery delivery service using autonomous delivery robots to make home deliveries on behalf of local participating CO-OP stores.

Following the highly successful first trial in the Adel and Tinshill area of Leeds, Starship Technologies are now seeking approval from Leeds City Council (LCC) to expand the trial service in three new neighbourhoods of Leeds. Each new location is currently served by a local CO-OP store.

The locations selected include:

•  Swarcliffe

•  Kippax

•  Wetherby

It has been agreed that any proposed expansion will take a phased approach subject to member approval, with Swarcliffe and Kippax planned to be launched in the first phase, no sooner than W.C 24th July 2023, followed by Wetherby in autumn 2023 (dates to be confirmed).

It is proposed that each new trial area will run for an initial 6 months from the respective launch dates.

Decision

The Chief Officer for Highways and Transportation was requested to:

a)  Give authority for Starship Technologies to expand the trial of their zero-emission grocery delivery service using autonomous personnel delivery devices (PDDs) into three new areas of Leeds. The three proposed locations are Swarcliffe & Whinmoor, Kippax and Wetherby.

b)  Give authority to run the proposed trials for an initial six months from the respective launch dates.

c)  Note that any subsequent approvals to extend the trial(s) will be delegated to the Head of Transport Planning as an administrative decision and do not need to be presented at future Highways Board unless there is a significant change.

d)  Confirm that LCC will retain all the current legal and operational agreements set out in the original Highways Board report approved November 2022 and updated to reflect the new areas. The previous report can be accessed in the background papers section at the end of this report.