BRITTANY Ferries has received a grant of nearly £5m from the EU towards the next wave of ships to be fitted with scrubbers, which cleans up the exhaust.

This is around eight per cent of the cost of carrying out the work and the company received nothing towards the cost of fitting the first three ships, which included the Barfleur, which sails from Poole to Cherbourg.

The company had requested a temporary exemption to the new EU rules to give them time and resources to upgrade their ships, but this fell on deaf ears.

Barfleur was fitted between March and May and Normandie and Cap Finistère have also been upgraded. The second batch, Mont St Michel, Pont-Aven and Armorique will be done at the end of this year and early next year.

However the grant will not lead to a reduction in ticket prices, said a spokesman for the company.

"We have to burn low sulphur marine gas oil on the ships that have yet to be fitted with scrubbers. This is significantly more expensive than heavy fuel oil which we able to use before the new regulations came into force on Jan 1 2015. So our overall fuel bill has increased considerably this year despite the general fall in the price of crude oil."