A CAR dealership boss has hit out at Glasgow City Council over the second phase of the Low Emission Zone (LEZ) which he said will have a "significant impact" on businesses like his.

Phase two, which comes into effect on June 1, will see petrol vehicles registered before 2006 and diesel vehicles registered before 2015 prohibited from entering the city centre over pollution fears.

Henrys Skoda, on Kyle Street in Townhead, was excluded from the zone during phase one, which came into effect in December 2018 and targeted emissions from Glasgow’s bus fleet.

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However, the zone boundary was expanded as Glasgow City Council rolled out phase two, and now includes Henrys Skoda.

Bruce Henry, managing director of the dealership, claims that throughout the consultation period in 2021 he received no invitation for engagement with the council and was never notified directly that his business would soon fall within the LEZ.

Glasgow Times:

When Mr Henry became aware of the new boundary lines, he "got in touch with the council" but the consultation and objection periods had already passed.

He said: “There was no direct engagement. And for me, direct engagement is actually someone making direct contact with us for some meaningful consultation and that was not [what happened].”

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The council states it encouraged all those with an interest to participate in two consultations which it said "were publicised across a variety of platforms including press release, radio and digital advertising, and promoted social media posts".

Mr Henry said the regular customer base that Henrys Skoda relies on will be reduced by around 11% which is set to have a "significant impact" on trading and the firm can no longer carry out MOT testing on non-compliant vehicles.

Mr Henry said: “We are all approved by the Department of Transport to carry out the MOT testing on vehicles. And what’s happening now is these vehicles will be excluded, we will not be able to bring these vehicles in for Department of Transport MOTs.”

In addition, if a customer wants to trade in a non-compliant car for a lower-emission vehicle, they can no longer do so at a dealership within the LEZ.

He added: “They can’t do that. And I think this is a real challenge for us is that we honestly believe that we should be part of the solution in terms of transitioning people to a cleaner alternative.”

The dealership boss described the situation as “extremely frustrating” and has said he feels “ignored” by the council.

Mr Henry describes the Townhead area his business is located in as “light industrial” and expressed confusion over why it has been included in the LEZ in the first place.

He said: “I think as a scheme it’s not been well thought out. For the boundary of the zone, they’ve used the boundary of the M8 coming across and then connecting to the Kingston Bridge.

“They just used that as a template and in actual fact a lot more thought needed to go into it because clearly the north territory is not pedestrian.”

There is a fear that more than 200 jobs could be lost between the five auto businesses located within the Townhead area of the LEZ if losses make trading untenable in the area, Mr Henry warns.

He said: “The big thing for us is our car dealership should be part of the solution. And that’s something I really want to get across.

“We need to be the ones that are transitioning people from their cars that are non-compliant to a cleaner alternative. And we can’t do that.”

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Glasgow City Council said there has been an extensive programme of communications and engagement to raise awareness of the scheme since 2018.

A spokesperson said: "This has included contact with the Scottish Motor Trade Association and the National Franchised Dealers Association."

They added: "The area covered by the final phase two LEZ boundary which takes in Townhead, involved a number of decisions including observed and predicted pollution levels, relative traffic levels, predicted improvements in pollution, operational and enforcement factors and potential adverse impacts from redirected or parking traffic.

"The original LEZ zone affected scheduled service buses only, with an access route for non-Glasgow buses to access Buchanan Bus Station.

"Phase two was treated as an entirely separate proposal with both consultations seeking feedback on the boundary and the entire LEZ scheme subject to an official objection period."

The spokesperson added: “Glasgow has historically recorded the highest levels of nitrogen dioxide pollution of any Scottish city and has been the first to monitor a return to nitrogen dioxide levels above the legal objective during recovery from the pandemic.

"Considering the delay in the original timescale due to the pandemic, it is reasonable that Glasgow enforces the LEZ at the earliest opportunity to help bring down pollution levels to a more acceptable level and reduce the health impacts on those who live, work and use our city centre for retail and leisure.”