Alexander Dennis joined the Bus and Coach All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) in Westminster on Thursday 21 October to remind the Government to deliver on its promise of 4,000 UK-made zero-emission buses. The recently-formed group is chaired by former Transport Minister and Scarborough constituency MP Robert Goodwill.
To show that it is ready to deliver, Alexander Dennis took along an electric double-decker on its way from the factory to customer RATP Dev London, which joined similar zero-emission vehicles from Switch Mobility and Wrightbus.
Over 30 MPs including Shadow Secretary of State for Transport Jim McMahon, Shadow Ministers Sam Tarry and Alan Whitehead, and Falkirk representative John McNally took the opportunity to see what the 4,000 British-built zero-emission buses could look like, as did Transport Minister Baroness Vere.
In a letter delivered by the group to Number 10, the APPG has called for the Prime Minister and the Chancellor to use the upcoming Spending Review to increase the funding allocation for the current financial year to allow further ZEBRA (Zero Emission Bus Regional Areas) bids to progress as this year’s scheme was significantly oversubscribed.
It has also urged the Government to ensure the funding available for the 2022/23 financial year is significantly bigger, warning that otherwise ‘many local authorities will not receive any support to decarbonise their bus fleets, prolonging exposure of their community to higher levels of air pollution, while UK manufacturers stand ready to build these vehicles or risk having to cut jobs of talented green collar team members.’
