Cities get £40m to incentivise ULEVs

Bristol, London, Milton Keynes and Nottingham have been awarded significant funds to support the take-up of ultra-low emission vehicles (ULEVs) after successfully bidding for a share of a £40m pot created by the Department for Transport.

Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin announced the winners of the Go Ultra Low City Scheme, stating "The UK is a world leader in the uptake of low emission vehicles and our long-term economic plan is investing £600 million by 2020 to improve air quality, create jobs and achieve our goal of every new car and van in the UK being ultra-low emission by 2040."

London has been awarded £13 million, and several boroughs will introduce measures to promote plug-in vhicles. For example, more than a dozen streets in Hackney will be given car-charging street lighting, while Harrow will develop a low emission zone offering parking and traffic priority to owners of plug-in vehicles. Westminster Council already provides free parking for ULEVs and London’s proposal aims to deliver 70,000 ULEVs sold by 2020 and almost quarter of a million by 2025.

Outside of the capital, Milton Keynes will receive £9 million to open a city centre Electric Vehicle Experience Centre — a ‘one stop shop’ providing consumer advice and short-term vehicles loans. The city will also make 20,000 parking bays free for electric vehicles, and bus lanes will be rebranded low-eimssion lanes, with plug-ins given the same priority at traffic lights as local buses.

Further southwest, Bristol will get £7 million to offer residents free residential parking for ULEVs, access to 3 carpool lanes in the city, over 80 rapid and fast chargers across the city and a Try-Before-You-Buy scheme encouraging people to lease a plug-in car for up to four weeks.

Elsewhere, Nottinghamshire and Derby will use £6 million of funding to install 230 chargepoints and offer ULEV owners discount parking and access to over 13 miles of bus lanes along key routes across the city.

The scheme is also providing £5 million of development funding for specific initiatives in Dundee, Oxford, York and north east regions.

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