An Edinburgh councillor who opposed the city’s Low Emission Zone (LEZ) still drives a car that doesn’t comply with new rules.
Iain Whyte, of the Conservative Party, hit out the LEZ policy while driving a ten-year-old diesel motor and a 35-year-old Porsche.
The new rules aim to reduce pollution, and impose penalties on drivers with vehicles that don’t meet emissions standards in the city centre. Penalties start at £60 and came into force back in June, reports the Daily Record.
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Green MSP Lorna Slater said: “I urge Mr Whyte and anyone else with doubts to look at the human cost of pollution and the impact it has on our city and our communities. We cannot wish the climate crisis away and the LEZ is a modest and effective step towards cleaner air and a greener capital city.”
Whyte, the Tory group leader on Edinburgh council, dismissed the scheme as a “costly dud” that would make “no practical difference to air quality” in a newspaper article. Of particular interest to him was the impact on drivers of older cars.
“These fineswill only hit poorer drivers of older vehicles they can’t afford to replace,” he wrote.
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He added: “Vehicle compliance with the LEZ standard also increased from 48 to 78 per cent in the last six years – and will keep getting better quickly as more older vehicles are scrapped. Most of the pollution in central Edinburgh is caused by buses that already meet the LEZ standard, so this won’t change.”
Whyte, who sits on the council’s Transport and Environment committee, is himself a city driver with an older car. He said his Kia does not meet LEZ standards but insisted his Porsche is exempt from the rules.
Whyte also said replacing his car would cost thousands of pounds and claimed the motivation behind LEZ was banning cars from parts of Edinburgh.
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Edinburgh Labour MP Scott Arthur said: “The good news for Cllr Whyte is that if he can’t drive to the City Chambers in his car, Edinburgh’s municipal bus fleet is fully compliant with the Low Emission Zone regulations. Travelling by bus or tram in Edinburgh is a great way of helping to clean up the air.”
Slater defended the scheme: “LEZs are a small and simple step towards cleaner air and safer and more accessible streets. There is no such thing as a safe level of air pollution. Toxic air is a killer and LEZs will save lives.”
A Scottish Tory spokesperson said: “Councillor Whyte does not drive his car into the low emission zone. Like many people living in Edinburgh, he mainly uses public transport services. He has no plans to change his current vehicle as that would require him to shell out money simply to comply with Labour’s flawed, anti-motorist low emission zone scheme.”