A greener future for motorists is being led by the City of York Council with its new fleet of dual fuel cars.

Andy Hudson, head of environmental services with City of York Council, with the keys to one of the council's seven new LPG cars bought by the council for its staff pool

The news comes in the wake of figures produced by car giant Vauxhall, which suggest that pollution on the A64 south of York could be cut by 75 per cent if motorists switched fuels to liquefied petroleum gas (LPG).

But the extra good news for drivers is that fuel costs for LPG can be less than half that of normal fuels.

A motorist who travels an average of 15,000 miles a year can expect to save about £600 on fuel if driving a dual fuel car.

The cars can switch between normal petrol and LPG at the flick of a switch. The only downside is that, at the moment, drivers can only fill up locally on LPG at the York Gas Centre in Huntington Road.

But the fuel isn't a modern invention - buses in Vienna have been running on it for 30 years and virtually all taxi drivers in Japan use it.

Now the City of York Council is embracing the environmentally-friendly fuel in its seven new pool cars for use by staff.

Paul Robinson, the council's environmental protection manager, said: "With our new dual fuel vehicles we are trying to show people that there is an interesting alternative to petrol, and it's cheaper.

"Our cars all carry livery showing that they're dual fuel. As for the A64, we do deal with the air quality generated by the road and we like to promote anything that goes towards reducing the amount of pollution being pumped into the area's atmosphere.

"The congested city centre is where we have concerns. If people switched to dual fuel or electric cars there would be a significant difference in air pollution."

A survey commissioned by Vauxhall Motors suggests there are "widespread misconceptions" about the performance and reliability of dual fuel cars.

But the firm says using LPG has virtually no effect on performance and is said to offer a longer life-span for the engine because it is a cleaner fuel.

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