I had a really interesting visit to Mellor Buses in Rochdale this morning hearing about how the Government’s zero emission bus funding is excluding companies like Mellor as they deal with buses at the smaller end of the spectrum – under 23 passengers – and holding back British manufacturing as a result.
We’re 18 months on from the Government promising four-thousand zero emission buses and they’re still massively falling short of their promises. This is just the latest in a long line of examples of the government talking a good game, yet failing to deliver.
Even if all four-thousand of these buses are delivered it still leaves twenty-eight-thousand buses polluting our roads. While we’re still waiting for the promised zero emission buses, cuts to bus services and rising ticket costs will push more people into using more polluting forms of transport.
The decade ahead is crucial. We must grow modern industries such as manufacturing electric vehicles to build a long-term economy that provides good jobs and is fit for the future.
Jim McMahon OBE MP 