At least half a million pounds will soon be spent making buses which operate in and around Brighton & Hove ‘super low emission’.
The Department for Food, Environment and Rural Affairs (Defra) has awarded the city £499,500 following a funding bid to upgrade the exhausts of approximately 40 buses with newer, cleaner parts.
This will reduce the emissions they produce in Brighton & Hove and the wider Sussex area.
The extra money follows funding allocation of £27.9m from the government for the Bus Service Improvement Plan.
One hundred buses were previously converted under similar schemes since 2014.
Brighton & Hove Buses have also invested £17.8 in 54 hybrid buses which are powered by a battery when they travel through the city centre.
Among others, the newly retrofitted buses will service routes across the city centre and Sussex, for example those routes that start and finish at Churchill Square and the Old Steine.
Brighton and Hove City Council say they will also be using £376,800 of new Defra air quality funding to improve air quality monitoring and provide information on pollution and behaviour across the county.
Councillor Steve Davis, Co-Chair of the Environment, Transport and Sustainability committee said:
“This is another positive step towards lowering emissions across Brighton & Hove and reaching our goal of being a carbon neutral city by 2030.
“We want more people using public transport to get around, including our fantastic network of buses. It’s great that as a result of this successful funding bid, more of our buses will soon be ‘super’ low emission.
“Air pollution is one of the greatest environmental risks to human health. The quality of air we breathe affects everyone and so the more we can do to cut emissions, the better it will be for everyone.”
Managing Director of Brighton & Hove Bus and Coach Company Ed Wills said:
“We take our role of providing bus services to the community seriously.
"This is why we have invested just under £20 million in the last few years in buses that operate emissions free in the Ultra Low Emissions Zone and the Air Quality Management Areas. We recently launched our climate change strategy where our goal is to make all buses emissions free by 2035.
"Retrofitting older buses that operate in and around Brighton & Hove to super low emissions helps improve air quality for everyone today as we head towards our target.”
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