Plans for 250 electric buses and 1,000 bike hangars in Bristol have been paused after the government scrapped funding. The Zero Emission Transport City project would have included a series of plans to cut emissions from Bristol’s roads, but this has now been “curtailed”.
Last summer Bristol City Council was given £500,000 from the Department for Transport to write up a programme of plans to decarbonise the city’s transport network, which accounts for a third of Bristol’s carbon emissions. This was expected to take six to nine months.
This programme would then be used to apply for much more government funding, to actually put the plans into practice. But after the resignation of two prime ministers last autumn, changes in the government now mean the Zero Emission Transport City project will no longer be funded.
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This means plans to roll out electric buses and install bike hangars, which give people a safe and secure place to store bicycles, are on hold until the council can find a way to fund them. The project would also have included reducing the amount of lorries driving in the city centre.
Updates on the plans were given to councillors on the growth and regeneration scrutiny commission on March 22. Speaking to the scrutiny commission, Pete Woodhouse, transport strategy manager, said council staff were unsure how they could spend the leftover money.
He said: “This was a government scheme that we engaged with and were awarded £500,000 to work up a feasibility programme for a bid to develop a number of things to promote zero emissions. This would have included things like enhancing the bus fleet to zero emissions, and creating a zero emissions zone around the Old City.
“Unfortunately, the programme will now not be funded due to changes in government. We’re awaiting a bit of clarity on what the funding remaining from that £500,000 can be used for. This is unfortunately on pause until further funding from the government can be brought forward. So there was a big promise with this, and unfortunately that’s been curtailed.”
According to a cabinet report from June last year, other parts of the Zero Emission Transport City project could have also included creating a ‘zero emission zone’ in the city centre, covering the Old City, Broadmead and Queen Square; and freight consolidation hubs, with the last mile of deliveries made on cargo bikes or small electric van.
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