In a statement issued by Alternattiva Demokratika, spokesperson for transport, Mark Scerri said that "AD would like to express its support for the Authorities in their dispute with the bus owners over emissions testing, and urges the Authorities not to give in to the bus owners pressures."

Mr Scerri added that, "It is a known fact that Malta suffers from high ambient concentrations of air borne dust (partly due to the emission of black smoke by diesel engines), and that this pollutant has serious effects on human health. It is therefore inconceivable that heavy emitters of this pollutant such as the older buses are allowed to pollute the air without restraint."

"We believe that the VRT standards should be tightened especially with respect to emissions of dark smoke (particulate matter) so as to make sure that vehicles emitting copious amounts of dark smoke, are removed from the road and are replaced with cleaner engines, we are also of the opinion that the current emissions reporting system has been far too lenient," added Mr Scerri.

"The time has come for the government to start thinking about a serious reform of the public transport sector. We also encourage the government to invest in low emissions vehicles and not to repeat the mistake which was done around 5 years ago when the government opted for diesel buses which at the time conformed to the least strict of the EU standards," concluded Mr Scerri.