Edinburgh to bring in pollution-busting Low Emission Zone a year early for buses

Council bosses plan to introduce the city's Low Emission Zone for buses by the end of the year

A POLLUTION-BUSTING ban on dirty vehicles in the Capital is to be brought in for buses a year early.

Council chiefs expect Edinburgh’s full Low Emission Zone scheme to be approved by the Scottish Government and come into effect by the end of next year.

But they are proposing to put through special traffic regulation conditions to allow them to apply the restriction to buses by the end of this year.

They say buses are a key source of nitrogen dioxide and are the main problem at many pollution hotspots.

The council says air quality modelling has shown that tackling bus emissions, particularly in the city centre, should be a high priority.

Transport and environment convener Lesley Macinnes said: “Introducing LEZs is crucial to our plans to tackle poor air quality in the city and its negative impact on health and wellbeing.

“This is only the first step in addressing air pollution through LEZs, and the council still fully intends to introduce a comprehensive LEZ addressing emissions from other vehicle types.

“Public transport is, of course, key to our broader vision for environmentally-friendly, efficient transport in Edinburgh, and we will work with bus operators to help them to adjust to these changes."

Edinburgh’s LEZ plans, unveiled last year, involve a two-tier scheme, with cars, buses and lorries which fail to meet pollution standards being banned from the city centre, while a separate zone for the wider city will exempt cars.

Almost 2800 responses were received to a public consultation.

The proposals have been criticised because the city-centre zone would not include such busy areas as Queen Street, Haymarket and Tollcross and the car exemption in the citywide zone means pollution-emitting vehicles would still be able to sit in queues on the notorious St John's Road and other hotspots.

Under the LEZ restrictions, vehicles with petrol engines will have to meet Euro 4 standards - required for vehicles made after January 2006. Diesel cars will have to meet Euro 6 standards - required for diesel cars manufactured after September 2015. Heavy diesel vehicles will need to meet Euro 6 standards - generally those registered with the DVLA after 2014.