Today marks the start of the public consultation periods for Edinburgh’s and Aberdeen’s proposed Low Emission Zones (LEZ) after the cities’ councillors approved proposals over the last fortnight.
The LEZs will mean that all cars and vans that that fall below certain emissions standards will not be permitted to enter the city centres with effect from spring 2022 for Edinburgh and 2024 for Aberdeen. Similar LEZs are also being introduced in Glasgow (2023) and Dundee (2022), which opened their public consultations earlier in June.
The bans will effect petrol cars and vans older than 2006 and diesel vehicles older than 2015. By the time the LEZs come into effect, city councillors anticipate that the vast majority of cars will be compliant, with those most likely to be impact being businesses running older vans.
Nevertheless, the LEZ’s are part of a wider move to restrict the number of private vehicles driving and parking in Scotland’s city centres as policymakers and pressure groups seek to make city centres more “people friendly”.
Image credit: Aberdeen City Council
Scotland in Motion 