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.

Content

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.