SOME of the district's most polluting buses are set to get a green makeover - thanks to a new Government grant.

The £395,000 funding will be used to clean up 25 older diesel buses to help drive down the district's air quality problem.

And the news has been hailed as a "really positive step" for the district's health.

Air pollution is a major hidden killer in Bradford, causing health problems such as heart attacks, strokes and respiratory disease.

One in 20 deaths among over-25s in the district can be attributed to harmful particulates in the air, and these premature deaths amount to 2,318 years lost from people's lives each year.

And the UK is now facing large fines from Europe for failing to meet air quality targets in a number of areas, including West Yorkshire.

Heavy-duty diesel engines are a major contributor to the level of harmful nitrous oxides in the air, so the Department for Transport has this week awarded £5 million to various projects across the UK which aim to curb the problem.

A bid by Bradford Council and bus firms First and Transdev proved to be one of the most successful, securing the third biggest funding grant in the country.

The news was welcomed by the district's Health and Wellbeing Board when it met on Tuesday.

Ruth Lees, Bradford Council’s principal environmental health manager, said: "It is a really positive step. That is going to be cleaning up 25 of our buses that would have been kept in service over the next few years, they wouldn't have been replaced.

"It is testament to the bus companies that they worked together with us on this."

The project in Bradford will see 25 of the district's oldest and most polluting buses, classed as 'Euro III' under European standards, fitted with exhaust gas treatment technology to cut their nitrogen oxides emissions by more than 80 per cent.

Announcing the funding awards, Transport Minister Baroness Kramer said: "The funding we are providing will result in real public health benefits while supporting skilled jobs and economic growth in the environmental technologies industries."