HE HAS always been a green champion – and now the former Mayor of Basingstoke and Deane has shown how his environmental credentials have really paid off.

Last year, Councillor Martin Biermann shunned the official chauffeur service that is traditionally available to the first citizen – and in the process he has saved borough taxpayers’ £25,000 in car hire and chauffeur costs.

During his mayoral year, Cllr Biermann, an independent councillor for Chineham, and his wife Chansopha travelled to many engagements by bicycle. They also occasionally used an electric car and opted to drive their own 1.2-litre Vauxhall Agila to other official functions.

At Cllr Biermann’s request, the savings that have been made have been earmarked for future “green transport initiatives”.

Cllr Biermann said: “I am obviously pleased by the high figure saved, and particularly by the example I have shown.”

Cllr Biermann arrived at many of his 332 official functions on his steel-framed German-made city bike.

“There is a limitation to what you can do on a bike,” he said. “Using a personal car was the only way out in some cases. But that was more environmentally-friendly than a chauffeured limo driving you around.”

On the rare occasions Cllr Biermann was chauffeured to functions, it was free-of-charge in an electric-powered Nissan Leaf provided by electric car proponent Robert Sharpe, from Brighton Hill, Basingstoke.

The borough council’s decision-making Cabinet has agreed to put the savings into the council’s Green Investment Fund.

Cllr Biermann believes the money will be earmarked to pay for small schemes that will encourage people to ditch their cars in favour of cycling or public transport. Some of his ideas include installing real-time bus information at main bus stops, or putting in bike shelters at key locations.