£800,000 TO CLEAN UP BUSES IN CITY’S POLLUTION HOTSPOTS
Upgrade for 50 to cut emission levels
FIFTY buses will be upgraded at a cost of £800,000 as part of efforts to cut illegal levels of air pollution in Stoke-on-trent.
The Government has ordered the city council to reduce harmful nitrogen dioxide emissions at two Potteries hotspots - Bucknall New Road and Victoria Road in Fenton.
City council leaders are fighting proposals for a bus gate in Victoria Road, which would reduce NO2 in the area by blocking most Hanley-bound traffic during morning and evening rush hours. But a less controversial part of the air quality plans will involve the retrofitting of 50 buses used on routes near the hotspots.
The Government is providing £800,000 for this to be carried out before the end of this year, while talks over the bus gate proposals continue with the Joint Air Quality Unit (JAQU).
It is believed the bus scheme will be enough to bring NO2 emissions in Bucknall New Road to acceptable levels – but further measures will be required in Victoria Road.
Cabinet members will be asked to accept and approve the use of the £800,000 grant funding tomorrow.
The report to cabinet states: “Whilst details of the final proposals to be submitted to JAQU to enable compliance to be met are being finalised, one part of the solution for all three sites that is not subject to further review is to improve bus emissions.
“Work has already been undertaken with bus operators to identify the vehicles required to be retrofitted on each corridor. This has resulted in a total of 50 vehicles being identified for retrofit. This is the basis on which our air quality modelling has been based.
“JAQU has indicated they wish to progress the bus retrofit element ahead of agreement on the final wider scheme. For the Bucknall New Road corridor, it is the sole intervention that is required to ensure compliance.”
Bus operator First Potteries has requested an additional £92,000, which would allow 10 older vehicles to be replaced rather than retrofitted.the report says JAQU does not object ‘in principle’, but has requested further information from First.
Nigel Eggleton, managing director at First Potteries, said: “We welcome the decision by the Department for Transport in approving £800,000 to be spent on upgrading technology that controls emission particles emitted from buses in our fleet.
“It is important to us as a local business to be working together with partners to improve air quality and bus provision. We have submitted a further request for consideration to replace some of the older buses in operation, which could make a significant improvement to our customers’ journey experience when traveling by bus.”
A similar retrofit project saw 25 buses upgraded at a cost of £500,000 last year, to reduce emissions at a third hotspot in Basford Bank.
Plans for a bus gate in Basford Bank are set to go head after receiving the support of the city council, Newcastle Borough Council and Staffordshire County Council. The Government has told the councils NO2 levels at all three hotspots have to be reduced to acceptable levels by 2023 at the latest.
NO2, the main source of which is vehicle exhaust, can cause or exacerbate various respiratory conditions, such as asthma and COPD.