A breath of fresh air?

james73 · A breath of fresh air?

DRIVERS in Glasgow could be forced to pay a daily pollution charge and face
hefty fines in a bid to cut emissions.

The plan is aimed mainly at fume-belching buses, lorries, vans and taxis.

But motorists whose cars fail to meet emission standards would also be hit.

It's part of a 16-point plan to cut levels of potentially deadly exhaust gases.

Streets which fail air-quality standards include the whole of the city centre,
Royston Road and Parkhead Cross in the East End, North Street at Charing
Cross and Byres Road and Dumbarton Road in the West End.

Roads bosses now plan to ask the public for their views.

One of the main proposals would set up low-emission zones, where operators
of vehicles which fail to meet emission levels would have to pay a daily
charge to enter the area or be fined.

The main aim is to force the worst polluters - mainly bus and lorry
operators - to replace or improve vehicles.

And there would be an expansion of the areas where drivers who leave
their engines idling unnecessarily could be fined.

But the plan also suggests owners of electric and other low-polluting
private cars could be provided with free or cut-price street parking to
encourage more use of vehicles producing less of the greenhouse gas
CO2.

Garden bonfires and burning rubbish at building and demolition sites could
also be banned in the effort to improve air quality.

Robert Booth, executive director of land and environmental services, said:
"Emissions from bonfires can have damaging health effects and although
serious harm is unlikely if exposure to bonfire smoke is brief, they can
cause problems for people with asthma, bronchitis and heart conditions
and may contribute to poorer local air quality.

"Glasgow encourages more environmentally-friendly ways of disposing of
garden refuse, such as composting, recycling or free uplift and disposal."

Building and demolition sites could also be targeted for the dust they create.

Over the past four years, Glasgow has carried out 10,200 air quality tests,
mostly on private cars, taxis and vans - with 267 failing.

James H

Hugo Drax

Gawd the govt and local councils must love having green and environmental issues to hide behind while imposing new taxes and charges!

I see that there will be a forecourt charge of approx 1K on new cars after 2010 as obviously paying VAT isn't enough.

I wouldn't mind if there was some accountability and evidence that our hard-earned taxes were being spent carefully.

There must be a better way to run a country.

AlanM

...not to mention the hefty increases in Road Tax from the budget

cybers

Edinburgh tried to force this move on people and it got them absolutley slaughtered.
Then they decided to bite the bullet and polled the community for thier views.
Again they got slaughtered but tried to forge ahead with the charging under the congestion umbrella People went mad and it was mothballed again.

If they want to improve air quality kill the half-wit who spouts the hot air to get us on the smelly old bus.
Improve public transport make it cheaper we might start to show an interest in it.

Subsidising of the infrastructure like they do in other countries instead of half-baked plans to burden an already over taxed motoring population could possibly be the ideal situation.

Hugo Drax

We need a govt who will focus on the issue of administering the country instead of headline grabbing and expensive initiatives, ID cards anybody? Sadly it just isn't seen as sexy by politicians who prefer to gadd about on conferences and sit on exciting security committees.

I am sick of the focus on terrorism and security issues and think they are being used as a smokescreen to hide inept administration.

Note this is a swipe at the ruling classes in general and not specifically aimed at the current incumbents. although they are a bunch of useless clots!

james73

poodiecat

Why not have days where the pollution is really bad and just ban cars that don't oblidge to a a certain level of green-friendlyness, just like other countries do?
The MOT stickers are divided into standard ones and "green" ones over in Austria, as example.

glasgowken

Another head shaking in disbelief moment

Load of bollocks.

HollowHorn