£15m spend to cut bus emissions hasn't done enough

Upgrade of more than 1,000 vehicles made some LESS eco-friendly

- JOSEPH TIMAN

MILLIONS of pounds spent on making old buses more ecofriendly has not reduced harmful emissions enough, the government has said.

More than £15m was spent on upgrading 1,153 buses in Greater Manchester, around half of the total fleet.

But funding for the national retrofit scheme was paused last year after reports that the technology used to reduce emissions was not as effective as first thought.

The government has now scrapped the scheme after a review found the selective catalytic reduction (SCR) technology, only reduced emissions of nitrogen oxides (NOX) by 11 per cent on average. And in some cases, retrofitting buses resulted in even higher emissions.

It comes as transport bosses in Greater Manchester issue a major update on the Clean Air Zone.

The controversial scheme, which would see some vehicles with high emissions including buses charged a daily fee to use local roads, is still under review.

Local leaders now want to scrap all charges, arguing that they can bring emissions down faster by buying new buses, reducing traffic around the city centre and offering grants to upgrade vehicles such as taxis. However, in an update issued on Wednesday, transport bosses revealed that nitrogen dioxide (NO2) will remain above legal limits in Greater Manchester for another two years.