A council chief has dismissed claims that Aberdeen’s LEZ has blocked off the city centre to drivers — claiming that far fewer fines than first thought could be dished out.
The low emission zone went live on June 1, meaning anyone driving a non-compliant vehicle in certain areas will be hit with a £60 fine.
Frustrated motorists have since fumed that the new scheme has limited their access to the city centre while others branded it nothing more than a “cash cow”.
Aberdeen City Council originally estimated 14% of cars in the city would not meet the strict requirements.
We surveyed the LEZ boundary between the Denburn and Woolmanhill Roundabout during Friday morning rush hour.
Our findings undercut that initial prediction.
And these figures were brought up as vindication by planning chief David Dunne when questioned by councillors.
After manually imputing every registration plate of 873 vehicles into the official checker we found only 23 were non-compliant, which equates to 2.6%.
“Fair play,” he said of our painstaking effort.
Chief council officer dismisses figures being ‘bandied about’
Councillor Alex Nicoll originally brought up the LEZ during discussions about the controversial bus gates.
He pointed out that the Denburn provides an “alternative route” for drivers who previously used the roads where bus gates, or other measures, have been established.
But his concern is now the LEZ, which they “knew was coming down the line”, is being enforced people are struggling to enter the city centre.
The councillor argued: “Something like 1 in 7 vehicles can’t actually use those routes because Denburn is closed. You can certainly go around Wapping Street and round in a circle back to College Street, but you can’t go up the Denburn.
“You can’t go up Bridge Street because of the bus gate, and we have another problem with the Quay.
“It highlights an unforeseen consequence that was coming down the line that we knew about.”
However, this was countered by Mr Dunne, who cited the findings made by the P&J to show fewer drivers are being impacted than what the numbers being “bandied about” indicate.
Addressing Mr Nicoll, he said: “I think the figure you quoted is the 14% of vehicles that wouldn’t comply with the model.
“But, interestingly, if you look at the Press and Journal article where they’ve actually done a sample on the Denburn they found that of almost 900 vehicles that they individually entered — so fair play— into the checker, only 23 vehicles weren’t compliant.
“And of those 23, eight were taxis, which are exempt, so I think the percentage was 2.6%.”
Aberdeen LEZ was ‘never intended to be a cash cow’
The planning chief reassured the number of non-compliant cars in the city will get “smaller and smaller, year on year”.
And, he pointed out that 10 out of 14 of the city car parks are not in the boundary, meaning people can still access the centre.
This is the second time in just over a month that the council officer has had to defend a city centre road system against claims of it being a “cash cow”.
In May, he responded to figures showing drivers were hit with £3 million in bus gate fines claiming it was “just a one-off spike” and that it would eventually “tail off”.
Mr Dunne agreed the LEZ was “always coming”, but went on to stress there is now evidence that the numbers of non-compliant cars aren’t as high as expected.
He added: “Our expectation, and I think it’s starting to be bourne out, is contrary to what the public might believe about some of these schemes being cash cows, or anything else, that is simply not the case. They were never intended to be.
“That is why we, I’m going to say, fought very hard with the Scottish Government to ensure that they would fund the implementation and ongoing operation of the scheme.
“We never thought it would generate anything like the sort of figures being bandied about.”
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