Levels of harmful air pollutant nitrogen dioxide increase since introduction of

Air pollution increased in Glasgow after the introduction of the low emission zone (LEZ) in June, it has emerged.

Levels of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) rose in the city centre after older cars and vans were banned from the zone, compared with the same period last year.

SNP-led Glasgow City Council claimed on its website that ‘harmful nitrogen dioxide is being recorded in our city centre at levels that do not meet the legal requirements’.

But testing on Hope Street showed that in the past two years NO2 levels have not exceeded the illegal mark, and have in fact gone up since June when compared with last year.

Levels were, on average, 31 micrograms per cubic metre in June, July and August last year but were 34 this year. The legal limit is 40.

Thousands of drivers risk punishing fines if they travel into Glasgow city centre after the SNP ramped up its war on motorists

Scotland’s first Low Emission Zone (LEZ) – which bans older vehicles from the city’s roads – was given the green light yesterday despite a last-ditch court bid to stop it

Yesterday an air quality expert told The Scottish Mail on Sunday: ‘Buses are the main polluters, hence the reason levels remain more or less the same as before, and therefore you have to question the point of banning cars.’

Scottish Tory deputy transport spokesman Graham Simpson said that if the figures are worse, the LEZ scheme ‘has to be seen as a failure’.

Glasgow City Council said pollution levels ‘are highly variable and dependent on a number of factors, including weather patterns’.

In June the SNP ramped up its war on motorists and now thousands of drivers risk punishing fines if they travel into Glasgow city centre.

Cars, vans, buses and lorries could be slapped with fines of £60 if they fall foul of the strict new environmental rules.

Scotland’s first Low Emission Zone (LEZ) – which bans older vehicles from the city’s roads – was given the green light despite a last-ditch court bid to stop it.

It meant more than 730,000 vehicles registered in Scotland were not ‘green’ enough to enter the zone unpunished.

Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Dundee are due to follow suit with their own LEZs in June next year.

SNP-run Glasgow Council claimed the drastic measures are necessary because air pollution in the city centre has long been above the legal requirement for ‘green’ environmental targets. 

But Steven Grant, Unite Glasgow cab section secretary, argued the electrification of buses – which the council said was responsible for 70 per cent of the limit-breaking emissions – brought pollution well below the legal threshold. 

He said at the time: ‘This damaging and punitive plan is going to be devastating for our trade, without a shadow of a doubt.

‘Frustrated taxi drivers are asking, ‘Why are we being punished when the air monitoring shows Glasgow is now below the legal threshold?’

More than half of the city’s 1,421 black cabs do not comply with LEZ requirements so will be forced off the road in the next year.