Glasgow Low Emission Zone: City rips off citizens
Only 2 months after the introduction of the Low Emission Zone in Glasgow, the city council has earned almost £600,000 through fines. After heavy criticism because of problems with the city-owned vehicles, there is now renewed anger among the population. Is the city making money?
The Low Emission Zone, LEZ for short, has been active in Glasgow since June this year. Diesel vehicles need at least Euro standard 6, petrol vehicles Euro standard 4 to be allowed to enter. Older vehicles that enter anyway are fined £60. In June, vehicles were only fined once, but since July, multiple offences are also fined multiple times.
While in June just under 3,000 fines were issued, in July there were already twice as many. This corresponds to about 150 violations per day. 777 offences were issued to repeat offenders. For such an offence, the fine is doubled as a deterrent. So anyone who enters the zone twice will not pay £60 again, but £120. 1 person was fined 4 times in July and has to pay a fine of £480.
The city promises to invest all revenue from the LEZ in improving air quality. Members of the LEZ fightback campaign, which has been campaigning against the zone for some time, say the LEZ is a way to boost the city's ailing budget. They also criticise that the air values the city has used as justification for the introduction date back to pre-Corona times, when far fewer people worked in home offices. Moreover, the worst air polluters at the time - the city-owned buses - have since been replaced by newer models.
The city has yet to explain exactly how it intends to invest the money raised in improving air quality. A start would certainly be to convert the city's own fleet to hybrid or electric cars. It still operates about 884 diesel vehicles, many of which do not meet LEZ standards. The mayor's vehicle is also no longer allowed to enter.
Moreover, citizens who are severely affected by the LEZ would also have to directly benefit from the money collected. According to a municipal spokesperson, about 90% of the vehicles in Glasgow are compliant with the LEZ rules. It can be assumed that the other 10% belong to the poorer section of the population who simply cannot afford newer vehicles. These people tend to live in poorly connected fringe areas of the city, and therefore rely on their vehicles. They are now particularly hard hit by the LEZ rules. The city needs to come up with a plan that describes how these people can be helped. After all, in times of energy crisis and rising food prices, poorer people do not have much of clean air if they can no longer afford essentials.