Half a million pounds will be spent on making buses greener, it has been revealed.

Travel bosses from bus companies met with Colchester Council’s scrutiny panel to discuss issues around public transport.

One of the solutions, put forward by Essex County Council, was to invest in making Park and Ride buses more environmentally friendly.

Deborah Fox, one of the transport bosses at the county council, said it recently secured £500,000 of Government investment to bring 30 buses in Colchester, including the Park and Ride fleet, up to a high Euro 6 air quality standard.

A report submitted to the council said: “Our aim is to reduce congestion in the town, which costs the local economy over £25 million per year.

“We want to promote the Colchester Borough Card, which is a weekly and monthly multi-operator season ticket and is administered by First Essex on behalf of other bus operators, and the ͚Quality Bus Partnership on Route 88 from Halstead to Colchester.

“We will also engage in partnership activities with Colchester Travel Plan Club, and bus operators, such as National Clean Air Day on June 21 and Catch the Bus week in July.”

Arriva will also benefit from the Government funding, converting their fleet to the Euro 6 standard engines.

The company is also looking to introduce Arriva Click, a flexible minibus service that takes multiple passengers all heading in the same direction. Using a phone app, passengers can register details, and select pick up and drop off points.

First Bus is also looking to increase mobile ticketing and contactless payments, making travel easier for customers, and speeding up boarding times.

Community 360, a charity which supports vulnerable people in Colchester, is looking further improve the service.

Tracy Rudling, chief executive, said: “We have five accessible mini buses and 35 volunteer drivers who transport people in their own cars. It really is about that door to door service, so we have memberships if people cannot get to a bus stop.”

Other issues include congestion in Colchester town centre, and access to bus stops.

Bus company Hedingham Chambers said: “In Colchester buses are rarely able to pull up flush with the kerb, giving the ambulant disabled and drivers attempting to deploy wheelchair ramps serious challenges.

“Worse still buses are often unable to access the kerb at all because of legal and illegal parking.

“Unfortunately the bus station area is also badly laid out in this respect. There are too many individual stopping points, and these points are not clearly marked by destination, making the system difficult to understand.”