More than half off of Glasgow City Council's own vehicles are not compliant with their own Low Emission Zone (LEZ) regulations.
The LEZ will come into force from June 1, 2023, and will require all vehicles entering the city centre zone area to meet less-polluting emission standards or face a penalty charge.
As of October 22, the local authority still has over 820 vehicles that don't meet the requirements to enter the Glasgow LEZ. Figures obtained through a Freedom of Information request show not all 1,615 council vehicles are up to speed.
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The council as in the process of undertaking work to 'improve the emissions of vehicles' that will be required to enter the LEZ and will have to provide Clean Vehicle Retrofit Accreditation Status for the vehicles to pass.
The LEZ will operate 24 hours a day, all year round, in a bid to tackle “stubbornly high” levels of air pollution.
It will affect 226 streets throughout the city centre bounded by the M8 motorway to the north and west, the River Clyde to the South including Argyle Street, Bath Street, Broomielaw, Buchanan Street, Candleriggs, Duke Street, George Square, High Street, Jamaica Street, Mitchell Lane, New Wynd, Osborne Street, Queen Street, St Enoch Square, Sauchiehall Street, Saltmarket and the Trongate.
All vehicles will be affected by the roll out except for motorcycles and mopeds as well as vehicles for people with a disability.
Enforcement will begin from July 2023 but residents will have an extra year to comply meaning enforcement for vehicles registered to a residential property will begin June 2024.
A bid to push the start of enforcement back a year for non-residential vehicles, such as taxis and private hire cars, in line with other Scottish cities was put before the council but failed to get through.
It came after concerns were raised about how the changes will impact the taxi trade, with drivers having to spend vast amounts of money on retrofit devices to make sure their vehicles comply with the statutory requirements by next June.
Eddie Grive, Scottish Private Hire Association's general secretary said: "Retrofitting options are not available to the private hire trade as they are the council.
"Only the hackney taxi has been given retrofit options. All private hire cars need to be replaced for compliant vehicles by the LEZ enforcement date. According to council figures, 26% of the private hire fleet would require replacement by the enforcement date.
"The SPHA and the private hire trade have accepted that the LEZ is coming, but we have been campaigning for an increase to the upper age limit on private hire cars. This was set at seven years. We have been working to see this increased to ten years.
"Last month, the Council's licensing committee revisited this. A motion was passed requesting a report be published from the Council's Executive with a view to increasing the age limit so that an evidence led decision can be made on the matter.
"An increase to the age limit will help drivers and operators by allowing more time with the vehicles before having to retire them, which will help in the long term with the costs involved in becoming LEZ compliant. It would also help encourage the fleet move towards more environmentally friendly vehicles."
A council spokesperson commented: “When enforcement commences next June, all council vehicles entering the city centre Low Emission Zone will meet the required emission standards.
“In terms of our general fleet, we are working to increase levels of LEZ compliance through a combination of investment in new low and zero emission vehicles, and through retrofit.”
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