Clean air? How pollution levels

LEVELS of traffic and pollution are set to rise in some parts of Scotland’s biggest cities – as a direct result of controversial Low Emission Zones.

Under radical plans being pushed through in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Dundee, more than a million of the cars currently on Scotland’s roads will be banned from driving into city centres.

The move – which has been widely criticised by businesses, taxi firms and commuters – is intended to improve air quality in the heart of the country’s most built-up areas.

However, official research uncovered by The Scottish Mail on Sunday reveals that the introduction of the LEZs will actually have a harmful effect on the streets that ring the perimeters of the new zones.

Some roads just outside the LEZs are

‘This creates more congestion on the edge of the zone’

forecast to see an additional 1,200 cars use them every day as drivers try to avoid being hit with fines.

As a result, levels of dangerous fumes on those streets are predicted to rocket by up to 40 per cent.

The first LEZ will go live in Glasgow on Thursday – with fines for non-compliance – despite widespread opposition. However, a Final Design report for the city council shows the zone will lead to ‘an increase in car flow around the edge of the LEZ’ with a ‘number of roads predicted to see an overall increase in emissions of NOx (nitrogen oxide), due to implementation of the LEZ’.

The areas are expected to see an ‘average increase in NOx of 14 per cent with a maximum increase of 40 per cent’.

In addition, a Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa) report called Cleaner Air for Scotland, relating to the Glasgow LEZ, states: ‘Traffic model outputs indicate displacement of non-compliant vehicles, with a small number of roads… experiencing an increase in car flow of up to 1,200 cars per day.

‘This corresponds to a localised increase in nitrogen oxide emissions of up to 34 per cent.’

Politicians yesterday described the findings as ‘extraordinary’.

Areas affected include streets in Glasgow’s West End, roads east of High Street and around Glasgow Green and at Townhead.

Meanwhile, in Edinburgh, a Sepa report specifying locations at Chester Street, Drumsheugh Gardens and Palmerston Place at the edge of the planned zone estimates concentrations of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) – cited by the council as the main reason for introducing its LEZ – will be higher after it is introduced than they are at the moment.

Opposition is growing to the zones, which ban older cars and hit owners with £60 fines if they drive in the city centres, with a rally against them held in Glasgow yesterday.

AA spokesman Luke Bosdet said: