MP says new date for Edinburgh ban on polluting vehicles 'far too late'

EDINBURGH West Lib Dem MP Christine Jardine says the new date of May 2022 for the city’s baen on the worst-polluting vehicles is “far too late”.

The Scottish Government announced last week that the Low Emission Zone, originally due to be in force by the end of next year, would now come into effect between February and May 2022.

But Ms Jardine said people in her constituency would be bitterly disappointed.

She said: “This shows a disregard for what my constituents desperately need. “We have two of the most polluted roads in Scotland in Queensferry Road and St John’s Road and a frighteningly high level of deaths related to air pollution.

“We need less traffic and a better, more joined up travel scheme so that commuters don’t have to bring their cars into the city.

“It’s been more than two years since I launched a petition to bring a Low Emission Zone to Edinburgh West and, now, we will have to wait another two years while people continue to suffer.

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

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