31 August 2007 - Green Party MEP Caroline Lucas will launch a low emissions bus service for Brighton and Hove today.

Dr Lucas, who hopes to represent Brighton Pavilion as the country’s first Green Party MP after the next General Election, will join councillors, academics, business leaders, and journalists on the first journey of ‘The Big Lemon’ bus - a tour of the city.

The ‘Big Lemon’ will start commercial bus services from 7am tomorrow (Saturday, September 1) morning, running between Falmer and Brighton Stations - and back again - every half hour. The company plans to introduce more routes soon.

The firm will be run as a community interest company, with fares costing £1 for a single, and £2 for an all-day ‘Lemon Saver’ ticket. Children will travel half price, unless they are accompanied by a full fare-paying adult over 18, in which case they will travel free (max 3 children per adult). Holders of Council-issued bus passes will also travel free, at any time. Holders of Brighton and Hove Buses Saver tickets and season tickets will travel half price.

The new company’s status as a Community Interest Company means it exists first and foremost for the benefit of the community and must invest at least 65% of its profits for the benefit of local people. The Big Lemon aims to use profit from the busy services to develop services where they are poor or non-existent, bringing good quality public transport to areas where it is lacking.

"I am delighted to see the launch of The Big Lemon bus service: it ticks all the right boxes," said Dr Lucas.

"It is being run as a community social enterprise, with the profits shared between customers, the community - and The Big Lemon’s staff. That means it will be cheaper than alternatives, and anything which reduces bus fares by taking the profit factor out of running public transport can only encourage more people to leave their cars at home, and that can only reduce some of Brighton’s terrible congestion and improve air quality.

"Best of all, the company’s buses will run on recycled cooking oil - a genuinely low-emission ‘biofuel’ which is reducing waste and taking a real step towards reducing Brighton and Hove’s ‘carbon footprint’.

"This can only be good for the South-East - and especially coastal towns and cities like Brighton and Hove - which will be the region of the UK hardest hit by climate change, as I showed in my 2004 report ‘Global warming, local warning’."

The service will be launched with a tour of the city, and a chance for journalists to meet the drivers, from 4pm, meeting at the Old Steine, Brighton.

Caroline Lucas will speak, as will Professor Julian Crampton, Vice-Chancellor of Brighton University, alongside Big Lemon Managing Director Tom Druitt.

Mr Druitt added: "We’ve set up The Big Lemon to provide a friendly, cheap and eco-friendly bus service.

"Brighton is one of the worst cities in the UK for air quality and congestion and it is crucial that we all play our part to improve our environment. By introducing competition in Brighton, we hope to reduce fares across the city to encourage more people out of their cars and onto the buses."

ENDS

For more information, please visit The Big Lemon.