Following the Mayor’s response Stephen Knight said: "After spending over £11 million of public money on the first eight prototype buses the Mayor promised Londoners that each new bus for London would not cost a penny more than any existing hybrid bus. In reality each of the Mayor’s diesel hybrid buses are costing £50,000 more to purchase than alternative diesel hybrid double decker buses. Having spent so much public money it is alarming that the Mayor now admits that they will not meet the environment controls that are long overdue and which he proposes should start from 2020."
Continuing: "Bus technology is rapidly developing but the Mayor has made a foolish decision to lock into today’s diesel technology for the next 15 years. As there is no alternative market for the Mayor’s diesel hybrid buses they will have to remain on the roads until the end of their working lives. The Mayor has locked into today’s diesel technology by his obsession with the supposed return of a routemaster bus. Having admitted that the new London bus will not meet the pollution standards of the ultra-low emission zone the Mayor must now explain what will be the point of a zone which will exempt buses and HGVs – the most polluting vehicles of all."
