Hundreds more vans have flooded Gravesham’s roads in recent years, as campaigners warn of the environmental impact of online shopping.

Retailers have been urged to reduce the number of diesel vans they use to make deliveries, and make more effort to switch their fleets of vehicles to cleaner sources of fuel.

Since 2012, 887 more vans have been registered in Gravesham - nearly all of them powered by diesel. In total, 5,106 vans are registered in the area, an increase of more than 20%.

The increase has vastly outpaced the growth in the number of cars in the borough since 2012, as people increasingly shop from the comfort of their sofas. There are 9% more cars on the road.

Across the South East, there are 650,041 vans registered, an increase of 23% on 2012. In the same period, the growth in cars was just 10%. Across the UK, 96% of all vans are diesel, amounting to over 3.8 million vehicles.