Agenda item

With reference to article 4 of this minute, the Committee received a deputation from Kelsey Gillies, Asthma UK and British Lung Foundation Partnership and Frank Toner.

Ms Gillies intimated that  the British Lung Foundation was the only charity in the UK dedicated to looking after the nation’s lungs and air pollution posed a significant threat to respiratory health, and as such, addressing this was a key part of their mission to ensure that everyone in society could breathe clean air, with healthy lungs.

Ms Gillies advised that whilst they were pleased to see Aberdeen City Council progressing with their low emission zone plans, they urged the council to provide a more detailed timeline of when they could expect a full low emission zone to be implemented which covered all vehicles, not just buses.

Ms Gillies made reference to LEZ implementation plans in Edinburgh, Glasgow and London and the devastating impact of air pollution on human health.

Ms Gillies recommended that the Council agree a timeline which attempted to bring Aberdeen’s low emission zone efforts in line with Edinburgh and Glasgow, with the latter being the first local authority to make progress with the low emission zone back in 2018, and was expected to achieve full compliance by 31 December 2022 with all vehicles entering the zone, required to meet the specified emissions standards.

Ms Gillies proposed that rather than copying Glasgow’s five year implementation plan, Aberdeen City Council should also aim to ensure that all vehicle types were included in the Low Emission Zone by 2023. This would bring Aberdeen in line with other Scottish city councils and would ensure that they do not suffer a competitive disadvantage. Also, this would guarantee that Aberdonians could enjoy clean air and the associated health benefits as soon as possible and would also bring Aberdeen into alignment with numerous European Cities, such as Madrid, Berlin and Paris, who were all pushing towards zero emission zones.

Ms Gillies and Mr Toner responded to questions from members, specifically regarding the proposed timeline and grace periods in terms of members of public who were on low incomes who may be required to replace older vehicles.

The Committee thanked Ms Gillies and Mr Toner for their deputation.

With reference to article 15 of the minute of the previous meeting of 5 December 2019, the Committee had before it a report by the Chief Officer – Strategic Place Planning which sought approval to apply to the Traffic Commissioner for a Traffic Regulation Condition (TRC) for the purpose of reducing emissions from local bus services, and to undertake public and stakeholder engagement on options for a Low Emission Zone (LEZ) encompassing multiple vehicle types.

The report recommended:-

that the Committee –

(a)       agree that incremental improvements to the local public transport fleet is an appropriate first step in delivering a LEZ in Aberdeen;

(b)       instruct the Chief Officer – Strategic Place Planning to apply to the Traffic Commissioner for a TRC requiring that 20% of all local bus services in Aberdeen city centre achieve Euro VI (or better) compliance by 31st December 2020; and

(c)       instruct the Chief Officer – Strategic Place Planning to undertake public and stakeholder engagement on options for a city centre LEZ encompassing multiple vehicle types and report the outcomes of this process to the Committee in October 2020.

The Committee resolved:-

to approve the recommendations, subject to amending the percentage figure in recommendation (b) from 20% to 25%.