MINISTERS have been accused of letting people suffer needlessly from traffic pollution by planning to create just a single Low Emission Zone in Scotland.
Environmental group ClientEarth has demanded “urgent clarification” about the SNP Government’s plan given three Scottish cities are forecast to have illegal pollution by 2020.
Campaigners claim traffic fumes linked to cancer, strokes and foetal development problems are responsible for around 2500 deaths in Scotland each year.
READ MORE: Electric car sales in sharp rise as diesels run out of gas
Ministers announced in January that they intended to pilot a single Low Emission Zone (LEZ) in one city in 2018, with charges for heavy polluting lorries, buses and 4x4s.
Using number plate recognition technology, a year-round LEZ has covered all of London since 2008, with a daily charge of £100 for larger vans and minibuses, and £200 for lorries, buses, coaches and other heavy vehicles which don’t meet clean emission standards.
Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen councils have all conducted feasibility studies into hosting a LEZ, however the charges and penalties have yet to be worked out.
Detailed proposals are expected later this month, with Glasgow tipped to host the LEZ.
READ MORE: The motor trade and drivers face huge challenges in the years ahead
ClientEarth, a group of activist lawyers which has twice successfully challenged the UK Government over inadequate responses to illegal air pollution, welcomed the initial LEZ proposal, but said far more action was needed across Scotland..
UK Government figures forecast that Glasgow will have illegal levels of nitrogen dioxide until 2024, while both Aberdeen and Edinburgh will hit the legal limit by 2020.
A report earlier this year identified 38 zones in Scotland’s towns and cities where safe pollution limits are regularly broken, with Glasgow’s Hope Street and St John’s Road in Edinburgh the worst.
ClientEarth lawyer Anna Heslop said: "We've written to the Scottish Government to ask for urgent clarification of their plans. We're confused as to why their plans contain measures that will only help people in one Scottish city.
"We want to know what the First Minister will do to protect people across Scotland, in all the places where people are suffering from breathing toxic air.
"We hope they can provide reassurance the measures they plan to take will bring pollution down to within legal limits as soon as possible all over Scotland, not just in one place."#READ MORE: Electric car sales in sharp rise as diesels run out of gas
ClientEarth, which wants a national network of LEZs to keep the dirtiest diesel vehicles out of the UK's most polluted urban areas, has given the Scottish Government 14 days to reply.
Emilia Hanna, of Friends of the Earth Scotland, added: “ClientEarth are absolutely right to ask the Scottish Government why they are proposing only one LEZ when illegal and dangerous levels of pollution continue to plague many towns and cities in Scotland, including Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen, Dundee and Perth.
"The Government needs to finalise the details of its first low-emission zone straight away and commit to introducing LEZs in all Scottish cities with illegal air pollution."
Environment Secretary Roseanna Cunningham said: "We acknowledge the important role low-emissions zones can play, and we are working to have Scotland's first in place next year.
READ MORE: The motor trade and drivers face huge challenges in the years ahead
"We are the first country in Europe to legislate for particulate matter 2.5 - a pollutant of special concern for human health - and we are providing support to local authorities, including £3m a year to help tackle air pollution hotspots."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel