{"id":61285,"date":"2015-09-10T08:32:00","date_gmt":"2015-09-10T08:32:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?guid=1f642dee82d0cb0ab6116a849be6ed40"},"modified":"2015-09-10T08:32:00","modified_gmt":"2015-09-10T08:32:00","slug":"news-story-5-million-greener-bus-fund-announced-to-tackle-air-pollution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?p=61285","title":{"rendered":"News story: \u00a35 million greener bus fund announced to tackle air pollution"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"govspeak\">\n<p>Local authorities across England will from today (10 September 2015) be able to bid for a share of \u00a35 million funding to fit buses with green technology and offer better journeys.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/government\/collections\/clean-bus-technology-fund\">Clean Bus Technology Fund 2015<\/a> will allow local authorities to bid for up to \u00a3500,000 \u2013 enough to retrofit hundreds of buses that will reduce <abbr title=\"nitrogen oxides\">NOx<\/abbr> (nitrogen oxides) emissions and improve air quality.<\/p>\n<p>The fund is open for bids until the end of October, with a particular focus on pollution hotspots in cites and urban areas. The winners will be announced towards the end of the year.<\/p>\n<p>Transport Minister Andrew Jones said:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>The \u00a35 million Clean Bus Technology Fund will provide hundreds of cleaner buses to improve air quality in towns and cities across England and I <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/government\/publications\/clean-bus-technology-fund-2015-invitation-to-bid\">urge local authorities to submit bids<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"last-child\">The funding will also support the British industries helping deliver the technology. Today\u2019s announcement continues the government\u2019s commitment to improve air quality by upgrading existing vehicles on the road while also backing the low-emission solutions for the future.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>This funding fits existing bus fleets with green technology which reduces <abbr title=\"nitrogen oxides\">NOx<\/abbr> pollution from buses by at least 50%.<\/p>\n<p>This new \u00a35 million scheme will add to the \u00a320 million the government has already invested since 2011, together with some significant contributions from local authorities and bus operators, in similar local retrofit schemes for different types of vehicles which have significantly improved air quality. So far, around 1,500 buses have been retrofitted in London and in other parts of England and last year\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/government\/collections\/clean-vehicle-technology-fund\">Clean Vehicle Technology Fund<\/a> provided over \u00a38 million to councils to upgrade over 1,200 vehicles \u2013 vans, taxis, buses and even fire engines.<\/p>\n<p>The government also launched the \u00a3500,000 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/government\/collections\/air-quality-grant-programme\">Air Quality Grant Scheme<\/a> for 2015\/16 today. This scheme supports local authority projects to improve air quality with successful schemes previously encouraging local cycling projects, developing and implementing local low emission strategies and local engagement and awareness raising initiatives.<\/p>\n<div class=\"contact \" id=\"contact_1016\">\n<div class=\"content\">\n<h3>Local transport media enquiries<\/h3>\n<div class=\"vcard contact-inner\">\n<div class=\"email-url-number\">\n<p class=\"tel\">\n              <span class=\"type\">Press enquiries<\/span><br \/>\n              020 7944 3118\n            <\/p>\n<p class=\"tel\">\n              <span class=\"type\">Out of hours<\/span><br \/>\n              020 7944 4292\n            <\/p>\n<p class=\"tel\">\n              <span class=\"type\">Public enquiries<\/span><br \/>\n              0300 330 3000\n            <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Government announced competition so local authorities can fit emission-cutting technology and provide better journeys.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61285"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=61285"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61285\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":61307,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61285\/revisions\/61307"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=61285"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=61285"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=61285"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}