AIR quality is one of the key issues affecting the city in 2018.

So it is welcome news that Southampton buses are set to be fitted with pollution-reducing technology following a £2.67 million government grant.

As part of a drive to clean up the city’s air, the cash will be used to upgrade 145 older and more polluting diesel buses with advanced catalytic converters – which can cut nitrogen dioxide emissions by up to 90 per cent.

At its cabinet meeting next Tuesday, civic chiefs will vote on whether they will accept the grant.

If approved, the money will also be used to fit the vehicles with telematics exhaust monitoring technology, to monitor the amount of pollution produced.

Civic chiefs say they want to implement the technology ahead of the introduction of the city’s Clean Air Zone in 2019.

It comes after survey named Southampton as one of the most heavily polluted cities in the country.

Public Health England figures revealed that the percentage of adult deaths due to air pollution in 2011 was 6.3 per cent – the highest in the south east.

Meanwhile a giant billboard was erected on Bevois Valley Road last year, aiming to shame the city for its “dangerously high” pollution levels.

Something needs to be done.

This is a welcome move in the right direction.