Edinburgh LEZ: Tory leader says he has no plans to change his non-compliant car

Iain Whyte said he didn't see why he should scrap the second-hand 10-year-old Kia just because it did not comply with the LEZ's clean air requirements - and couldn't afford to anyway.

Edinburgh's LEZ, covering a 1.2 square mile area of the city centre, came into effect on June 1. It bans most diesel cars and vans registered before September 2015 and most petrol cars and vans registered before January 2006.

Iain Whyte's 10-year-old car does not comply with the LEZ | collage

Cllr Whyte, who opposed the introduction of the LEZ, said the fact his car was non-compliant did not really matter.

"It's a year too old to comply. It's very unlucky - if it was a year newer it would have had a Euro 6 engine fitted, but it's got a Euro 5, which is pretty clean but doesn't comply.

"I don't take the car into the centre anyway. If I go to the City Chambers I go on the bus, if I go anywhere else in the city centre I tend to go on the bus, so in a sense it's rather irrelevant.

"And right now, I don't think I've got the funds to replace it. It would cost me a lot of money.”

Cllr Whyte also has another car - a 1989 Porsche 944 - which he says is exempt from the LEZ because it is over 30 years old.

"The Porsche is not used very often. It's kept in the garage and used for occasional weekend trips. I could drive it into the city centre but I haven't for a very long time."

Cllr Whyte said his reasons for opposing the LEZ were nothing to do with his vehicles, although he said he feared the effect on small businesses who may have had to pay large sums to replace vans so they can continue servicing clients in the city centre.

He said his opposition was because he believed the LEZ would cost taxpayers money but make "little or no difference to what is already clean air in the city centre".

He said: "I think it’s a complete waste of time and more importantly public money because the stated aim was to bring the air quality within the legal requirements, but the air quality was already within the legal requirements and getting cleaner year on year."

And he said the stiff fines for breaching the LEZ would mean motorists did not drive non-compliant vehicles into the centre.

“People just won't bring in non-compliant vehicles, so the council won't raise any revenue, but it's going to cost the council about £400,000 a year to run the administration and enforcement. So it will cost the taxpayer money to enforce something that isn't having any effect."

Transport convener Stephen Jenkinson said Edinburgh had made good progress in reducing levels of air pollution.

But he said: “Multiple studies show that even low levels of pollution can have an impact on our health. Road traffic is the main source of harmful emissions that are damaging and contributing to climate change, so we have a real duty to tackle this.

“Our low emission zone has only been in place for a matter of months but already we’re seeing promising signs of people getting used to the changes.

“At the end of the day, our objective is to protect public health from harmful emissions, reduce health inequalities and make Scotland a cleaner, greener place to be.

“Ultimately we want to see zero fines issued in Edinburgh with all drivers fully following the rules, but until then any income from fines will be used towards operating the scheme and other projects which support air quality and address climate change.”