Passengers have been travelling on a bus powered by electricity as part of a council-led trial.

Medway Council launched the e-bus which is running between Medway Valley Park and Chatham Waterfront Bus Station until tomorrow.

The bus has zero-emission and can be fully charged in less than four hours, powering the vehicle for up to 18 hours.

The 31-seater, which provides wi-fi and charging points, is being laid on by bus providers BYD and operators ASD Coaches, based on Medway City Estate.

The trial launched on Thursday.

Following this, Medway Council will look into the viability of introducing an e-bus into the area full-time and look into what infrastructure Medway would need should bus providers and operators want to join the initiative.

ASD partner Hardip Dosanjh said: "Even as a small company, we are quite keen to show willing that this is the way forward and hopefully, if they can see one of the smaller companies doing it, big ones will follow."

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His son Baz added: "Younger generations are environmentally-aware and concious and that's the way things should be so it's only fitting that given that Medway is increasing in size, and there's a lot more demand that we do our part to promote low emissions and reduce our environmental impact where possible."

Cllr Howard Doe (Con), deputy council leader and lead on the climate change agenda, said: "We are looking at all sorts of ways that we can make the council greener and this is one of them, particularly if it leads to encouraging more drivers to buy electric cars as well.

"It's not a cult thing, what we are interested in is to make sure that anything that can be green is green and that way we cut the outputs down and we have better lives for our children and future generations."

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