Environmental action groups from Worcestershire have had their say on the government's plan to ban the sale of diesel lorries in the UK by 2040.

The move is part of the Transport Decarbonisation Plan which aims to reach net zero carbon emissions by 2050.

Extinction Rebellion Malvern’s Suzanne Savage, a lecturer, said more can and should be done and that the move has not come soon enough.

She said: "The government's ban is too little and far too late. The climate emergency is not something that is happening far in the future.

“Scientists tell us we are already looking at worse case scenarios for extreme weather caused by our continued greenhouse gas emissions. The news is filled with deathly heat waves, killer forest fires and crop failures.

“Climate breakdown is coming for all of us and we have an extremely narrow window in which to act before it's too late.

“We already have the technology to move to greener transport solutions right now, and a delay until 2040 is ignores the urgency of the climate crisis. New and better jobs could be created while we build a healthier environment if only we had a government with the political will to do so."

A spokesperson of the Worcester Environmental Group added: “I think the market will decide before then. The cost of batteries for vehicles is plummeting. Already many businesses with fleets of vehicles are switching to EVs because the overall cost of running them is cheaper.

“Also, the public are waking up to the cost to our health and the damage to our environment from polluting fossil fuels.”

Meanwhile the Road Haulage Association, the UK’s only trade association for road transport operators, said they support the plan to decarbonise but have criticised this latest move.

Chief executive Richard Burnett said: “This proposal as it stands is unrealistic. These alternative HGVs don’t yet exist – we don’t know when they will and what they will cost.

“It’s also not clear what any transition will look like – this is blue skies aspiration.

“For many haulage companies there are fears around cost of new vehicles and a collapse in resale value of existing lorries.”