Dentaid's Solar Powered Return To The Streets Of London
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- Published: Friday, 24 January 2025 09:14
- Written by Guy Tuggle
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Dentaid, the dental charity which supplies volunteer dental teams to deliver urgent care to some of the world‘s poorest communities, is returning to the streets of London after an absence of three years.
The charity’s existing fleet of dental vans could not economically enter London on account of their size and emissions. Their status meant the charity faced a daily charge of £500 to enter the capital, a charge which the powers that be were unable or unwilling to waive.
Dr Neil Sikka is a General Dentist at Moorgate Bupa Dental Care, Chief Dental Officer for Bupa UK Insurance, Director of Dentistry at Bupa Dental Care, and leads the Bupa relationship with Dentaid.
He told BBC London "I wrote to the Mayor and said we had paid for our initial visit, please could we have an exemption if we came again, and I was told very clearly that was not the case."
To circumnavigate the inflexibility of the situation, reduce their costs and carbon footprint, Dentaid commissioned, with the help of funding from the Bupa Foundation, a new, smaller mobile surgery van which has been named ’Clover’.
Everything on board Clover, from the dashboard and seats to the people, had to be weighed to ensure the van came in at under three and a half tons and consequently it ticks many ’green’ boxes.
Rooftop solar panels provide power to Clover’s batteries which in turn power the surgery. Earlier dental vans rely on a generator to power the onboard equipment. Clover also benefits from technology whereby the batteries receive a charge as the vehicle moves. Best of all, Clover can enter London, ULEZ compliant, for just £25 a day.
TFL would not comment on the Dentaid’s directly but a spokesperson told BBC London that they ’had done all they could to help charities replace or retro-fit older more polluting vans buses and coaches.’
In 2024 Dentaid ran almost 900 clinics across the UK. Clover takes the charity’s fleet of mobile surgeries to ten.
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