Air quality

Coventry Electric Bus City – Proposed closure of Cox Street Car Park and application to Stop Up Highway (part of Ford Street)

The Department for Transport (DfT) launched the All-Electric Bus Town fund in February 2020, with £50 million in grant funding made available to allow one town or city within England to make the transition to a bus network operated fully by electric powered buses. The West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA), as the strategic transport authority, submitted an Expression of Interest, which was developed by Coventry City Council in partnership with Warwickshire County Council, Transport for West Midlands and incumbent Coventry and Warwickshire bus operators.

Consideration of the full business case (FBC) was devolved from the DfT to the WMCA, which is now the accountable body for the Coventry and Warwickshire scheme. The FBC was approved by the WMCA board on 19th March 2021 and the funding of £50 million was passported from the DfT to the WMCA on 31st March 2021, allowing the project to proceed.

As a result, Coventry will see over 290 electric buses operating within the city by the end of 2025, supporting the Council’s objectives of a green economic recovery through the de-carbonisation of the city’s transport network, with an estimated emissions saving of around 24,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide and 55 tonnes of nitrogen dioxide per year.


To facilitate the electrification of the bus fleet, it is necessary to provide additional land in the vicinity of the West Midlands Travel Ltd bus depot and the Pool Meadow bus station to accommodate an electric bus charging facility. Cox St car park, as shown on the plan at Appendix 1 to the Cabinet report, is ideally located for this initiative and so it is proposed that the car park is closed to the public and the site re-purposed as a bus charging facility.

It is further proposed to stop up the length of public highway in Ford Street as shown on the plan in Appendix 2 to the Cabinet Report, (see pdf of Cabinet Report right of this page), which serves as a public vehicular access to Cox Street car park. This is to facilitate seamless integration and access to the electric bus charging infrastructure.

A fleet of 130 zero-emission double decker buses will be introduced next year as part of this project to make Coventry the UK’s first all-electric bus city.

National Express Coventry has ordered the brand-new British built zero-emission buses to enter into service in early 2023, helping improve air quality and reduce carbon emissions in the city.

Documents relating to the Stopping up of Highway

Enquiries should be directed to Transportation and Highways:

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