City’s new low emission zone is proving an instant cash cow - John McLellan

Councillor Scott Arthur, Transport and Environment Convener, urged drivers to be aware of Edinburgh’s Low Emission Zone. Picture: Lisa Ferguson

The benefit, if that’s how it can be described, is over six thousand drivers fined after being nabbed by licence plate detection cameras entering the city centre zone in a non-compliant vehicle in the month since it went live on June 1.

Not having the full socio-economic breakdown of every miscreant at my fingertips, I can only guess that, as the ban affects petrol vehicles over 19 years old and pre-2015 diesels, the owners are not top earners and the minimum £30 penalty is more than just an irritant.

And of the 5756 drivers whose bangers weren’t compliant, 274 of them did it again and received an increased fine, although it’s possible some transgressed before they knew they’d broken the rules in the first place.

Cllr Arthur, as he will remain until a by-election is held in Colinton/Fairmilehead to replace him, claims the low number of second offenders shows people are “getting used” to the system, another way of saying they are unwilling to stump up more money.

And what an instant cash cow it has become. If most drivers pay early to qualify for the 50 per cent discount to £30, it’s reasonable to assume the fine income for June is around £200,000 and if maintained could mean around £2.4m extra revenue a year.

That’s around five times the estimated annual running costs of between £440,000 and £580,000, and as the revenue is supposed to be reinvested in, according to Cllr Arthur, the LEZ’s “wider goals,” it’s only fair to ask what those goals are.

If the point is to keep banned cars out the city centre to improve air quality, then absolute success means zero income.

But as it’s all part of the aim to make the city “cleaner, greener and healthier”, and the original idea was for a much bigger zone, it looks very like the scheme is set up to generate a pot of cash for a further expansion.

Now the advertising boards are disappearing, the permanent boundary signage is not particularly easy to spot, especially if you don’t know about it.

Locals should be aware, especially as the Scottish Government spent £1.5m on the marketing campaign, but people always make mistakes, and what of visitors?

There will always be drivers to snare, particularly during the peak summer season when many tourists − and hard-up Festival performers and roadies in old jalopies – will be unaware of the restrictions.

If you’re French will you know that LEZ is the same as a ZFE (zones à faibles émissions), or if you’re German that you’re entering an Umweltzone?

Funding future schemes does not consider the £12m in Scottish Government grants that went into creating the current LEZ, and the others in Glasgow, Aberdeen and Dundee, presumably now just written off along with the PR budget.

Then there are grants paid to businesses and low-income households to update their vehicles, some £24 million to bus and coach operators and £16.5m to poorer households and small businesses.

“Edinburgh is a city with big ideas for the future,” said Cllr Arthur. And a magic money tree just like Jeremy Corbyn’s.