Over 50 gas-powered buses are heading to the streets of Nottingham after a successful bid for Government funding was confirmed today.

Nottingham City Transport in partnership with Nottingham City Council have been awarded funding under the Government’s OLEV Low emission bus scheme, which builds on the funding Nottingham City Council received in January for the Go Ultra Low City programme of £6.1m.

£4.4m has been awarded to Nottingham City Transport to buy 53 Bio-methane fuelled double deckers and to install the fuelling infrastructure at the Parliament Street garage.

Nottingham City Council was also successful in its bid for £920,000, which will fund on-street rapid charging infrastructure, improving the range and flexibility of the council’s electric bus fleet – currently the largest in the UK and Europe. This funding will also be used to construct the charging base for the 13 new electric buses which are shortly to arrive in Nottingham.

The new gas double decker buses will be quieter, smoother and cleaner and will ultimately provide an estimated carbon emission saving to the City of 23,204,856kg over the lifetime of the vehicles compared to conventional diesel buses.

This investment now means that the spread of low emission bus technology, both electric and gas, across Greater Nottingham is unrivalled across the UK’s core cities. By 2020 Nottingham City Transport will aim for every bus to have either a Euro 5 environmentally-friendly engine or be gas-powered, creating one of the lowest-emission fleets in the UK, directly complementing the City Council’s investment in electric buses.

This now means that Nottingham is well placed to deliver real change and health benefits for its citizens through the investment of low emission bus technology and through implementation of Low Emission bus zones, which the City Council hopes to have in place by 2018.

Nottingham City Council was the first authority in the UK to implement emission standards as part of its Statutory Partnership Scheme, which allows buses to only use the city stops if they have met the emission standards.

Councillor Nick McDonald, Portfolio Holder for Business, Growth and Transport, said “This is one of many bids Nottingham has put forward and won for OLEV funding which is enabling Nottingham to become a centre for low carbon, future-proofed transport, shaping our future as the UK’s greenest transport city with environmentally positive transport.

“This funding will also have a positive knock-on effect to our local economy and skills base, providing local opportunities to develop local pathways into employment, with bus companies also offering apprenticeships and work experience connected directly to this new technology.”