Drivers escape Glasgow LEZ fines on day one as enforcement not ready

Despite the council telling drivers and businesses they need to be ready, there were no enforcement measures capturing registration numbers on cars and then sending out penalty charge notices in place.

It means that anyone who did drive into the zone illegally from midnight on Thursday until “late afternoon” would not be fined the £60.

It has also emerged the council's pick-up trucks for removing illegally parked cars can't enter the zone. 

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The city council has told businesses and charities based inside the city centre LEZ they have had ample time to comply with the scheme having been publicised since 2018.

But the Glasgow Times understands the local authority was not ready to enforce it properly when it went live.

In one case, a response to the Homeless Project Scotland charity, who said its vans were not complaint and who asked for an exemption, the council had said: "Glasgow's plan to phase in a city centre LEZ was announced in 2018 to address decades of harmful air pollution, and since then there has been extensive communications and engagement to raise awareness of the scheme, its timescale for introduction and the availability of funding to ease compliance.”

Despite having five years to get a system in place, a source said the council was not in a position to administer penalty charge notices to vehicles not meeting the LEZ standards.

The council admitted anyone driving into the LEZ in a non-compliant vehicle in the first morning of the scheme will not be fined.

A council spokesperson said: “Glasgow’s Low Emission Zone came into force on June 1 and cameras were operational on that date.

“Enforcement commenced late afternoon, once certification was in place.

“Any fines incurred since enforcement began will be issued within the next 14 days.”

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Also, the tow trucks used by the council to remove illegally parked cars in the city centre are not able to enter the LEZ because they are too old to comply.

The trucks are based at Polmadie in the Southside of the city and are used in the city centre if a car is causing an obstruction.

A source said they are lying idle and the council is having to fork out thousands of pounds to pay a private firm to do its work.

The spokesperson added: “As the council uplift vehicles are non-compliant, we will be using private contractors to support parking enforcement in the zone area.”

We reported this week how Henry Skoda dealership boss hit out at Glasgow City Council over the second phase of the Low Emission Zone which he said will have a "significant impact" on businesses like his.

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.

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We also told how a union has called for parking changes at a Glasgow hospital to be halted as the new zone comes into force.

Staff parking at the Glasgow Royal Infirmary will be reduced by hundreds of spaces on June 1 – the same day the controversial LEZ scheme begins in the city centre.

We also told how protesters against Glasgow's new zone marched through the city at the weekend.