FIVE Southampton buses are to be fitted with landmark technology to help keep the city's air clean.

Following a successful 100-day pilot and with 9,000 miles covered in Southampton, Bluestar are to expand its air filtering bus scheme.

The trial, which launched in September 2018, saw a Bluestar bus mounted with a unique filter, cleaning 3.2 million cubic metres of the city’s air.

Bosses believe the filter, placed on top of the Bluestar 7 vehicle, will take approximately 99.5 per cent of small, harmful particles in the air.

The bus filter exceeded all expectations during the trial and proved its potential benefit to the environment by removing more harmful particles from Southampton’s air than first expected.

Following the success, all five buses operating the Bluestar 7 route will be fitted with air filters - cleaning the air on an 11.5 mile path running across the city.

While a single bus has the capacity to clean the air on its route every 215 days, to a height of 10 metres, it will take just nine days for the newly expanded feet to achieve the same feat.

Chief executive David Brown said: “When we launched the air filtering pilot, we wanted to play our part in tackling the crisis in urban air quality and show that buses could be an answer to pollution in cities.

"We already know that a fully loaded double decker can take up to 75 cars off the road, reducing congestion and pollution, and now we have hard data showing that buses with the fitment of an air filter can actively improve air quality.

“Our air-filtering system has exceeded expectations on how it benefits the environment.

"Rolling it out on more buses is the next step for Go-Ahead, and we would encourage authorities to get involved and help us roll this out at a faster rate."