£5m Clean Vehicle Technology Fund
Over 1,000 local authority vehicles are set to be given pollution reducing technologies after Transport Minister, Baroness Kramer, announced successful bidders for the £5m Clean Vehicle Technology Fund (CVTF). Seventeen local authorities have been awarded a share of the grants. Vehicles involved in the funding total 1,163 and include buses, coaches, taxis and emergency vehicles. In addition, the DfT also announced the allocation of an additional £50,000 of funding to help local authorities monitor the results of their clean technology projects. The majority of them are for PCVs.
The 2014 CVTF builds on the success of last year’s Clean Bus Technology Fund pilot, which awarded £7.3m across 26 local authorities to fund the modification of over 500 buses using both innovative and proven technologies. Previous rounds of the Clean Bus Technology Fund have been available for buses only and this is the first time money has been available for a wider range of public service vehicles.
Baroness Kramer said, ‘The £5m Clean Vehicle Technology Fund means councils can now lead the way on introducing greener vehicles on their local streets. We received imaginative applications from local authorities from across England for vehicles including buses, taxis, vans, fire engines and ambulances. All the schemes will lower emissions in busy towns and cities. The funding we are providing will result in real public health benefits while supporting skilled jobs and economic growth in the environmental technologies industries.’
Succesful bidders for bus technology in the Clean Vehicle Technology Fund include: Greater London Authority (SCR for 400 buses), South Yorkshire PTE (Thermal Management Technology for 41 buses), Merseytravel (Thermal Management Technology for 19 buses, SCR for one bus and SCR plus efan systems for 17 more buses), Southampton City Council (Thermal Management Technology for 9 buses and flywheel hybrid systems for 23 buses), Leicester City Council (SCR for fives buses), Bradford (SCR for 5 buses), Bristol City Council (Thermal Management Technology and Micro Hybrid Systems for 42 buses), West Yorkshire Combined Authority (SCR for 23 buses), Newcastle City Council (Flywheel hybrid systems for 30 buses), Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council (SCR for ten coaches), Brighton and Hove City Council (SCR for 30 taxi minibuses), Colchester (SCR for ten buses) and Chester West and Cheshire Borough Council (SCR for eight buses).