Nottingham City Council is driving the way towards a low carbon, sustainable transport future.

The City Council is awaiting the verdict of the Government’s Office for Low Emission Vehicles (OLEV) to its bid for a £8.5m to help develop electric car charging infrastructure and other measures to promote a low carbon transport area in the city centre.

The announcement is due later in November, 2015.

But this is not the only bid in the pipeline. A series of other OLEV bids for innovative, low carbon travel solutions include a £0.9m Electric Bus Project application to fund a bus charging network, a £25.5m project bid with Nottingham City Transport to introduce 82 gas double deck buses to the city and a £20m bid to develop an electric taxi fleet in the city.

OLEV is already supporting a study into delivering ultra-low emission taxis by awarding a £30,000 Energy Saving feasibility study to the City Council.

The City Council is also submitting a £10.6m bid with the D2N2 LEP (Local Enterprise Partnership) for a Regional Growth Fund bid to develop a Regional Bus Real Time system expansion. This would deliver 1,500 new signs across the region, expand the City Council’s back office system and upgrade ticket machines of smaller bus companies to allow the introduction of a regional smartcard system at a future date, as part of the Midlands Connect plans. Apps and other media applications would be developed and shared and software developed to integrate bus, tram and train displays.

Councillor Nick McDonald, Nottingham City Council Portfolio Holder for Jobs, Growth and Transport, said: “These OLEV and other bids clearly showcase our ambition to make Nottingham a low carbon and future-proofed transport city. The funding would shape our vision to be the UK’s green transport city, improving the city’s environmental quality and making it an even more attractive prospect for residents, visitors and business investment.”

The results of these funding bids will be announced over the next few months and success in this month’s £8.5m OLEV bid would clearly set the city on a more sustainable transport future.