OPINION - Time to demand electric bus service

Part of the Green Vision is that everything is connected.

It sounds obvious, but it is surprising how often it is ignored in the realms of policymaking and deciding how to tackle the future.

A good example came up at the last meeting of the county council’s health committee. The committee considered a report from the director of public health about air quality in Cambridgeshire. It is estimated that more than 250 excess deaths in the county each year are caused by air pollution.

Some of the worst hotspots for pollution are in the centre of the city, such as around the Drummer Street bus station. And most significantly, buses are the main source of traffic-related pollution, as they are powered by dirty diesel engines.

Efforts to reduce pollution by using improved diesel engines have had hardly any effect. The ‘take home’ message is that there is no such thing as a clean diesel bus. Yet all the efforts at reducing congestion in the city include an expansion in bus use.

The clear conclusion is that we need to move to low-emission vehicles such as electric buses if we are to tackle the problem. Yet Stagecoach dismisses electric vehicles as impractical.

What is lacking here is political will. If we want to breathe clean air as well as have an efficient public transport system, we can. London already has two routes that are served entirely by electric vehicles and TfL has committed to using only electric or hybrid buses in central London by 2020.

Cambridge is lagging behind and we are all left to breathe in the consequences.

So we don’t have two problems here – congestion and air quality – we have one. Everything is connected.

The Green Vision is that problems are most effectively tackled by taking the widest possible view. We start from the point that we all share one planet and work out our policy decisions from there.

It doesn’t just work with buses. We can get clean energy and create jobs by investing in renewables rather than uncertain and overpriced nuclear. We can improve the economy and end welfare dependance by introducing a Universal Basic Income. We can take the heat out of the housing market and tackle homelessness by taxing land rather than income. Everything is connected.