Dundee City Council’s Low Emission Zone will come a step closer if councillors back the next stage of the process.
A statutory consultation on the final plan for the city’s Low Emission Zone (LEZ) will be discussed by Dundee City Council’s community safety and public protection committee next week. The proposal puts forward the city’s inner ring road as the boundary of the LEZ, access to which would only be available to certain types of vehicle that meet stringent emissions criteria.
To achieve air quality compliance for NO2, PM10 and PM2.5 the LEZ must exclude all non-compliant buses but will also keep out older HGVs, LGVs and diesel cars registered on or before August 31 2015 and all petrol cars registered before 2006.
The final scheme comes after a previous consultation exercise identified the boundary and vehicle exemptions as the preferred choice in a survey which gathered the views of more than 1300 people.
Lynne Short Deputy Committee convener said: “It is vital that we continue to bring the people of Dundee, businesses and those commuters and visitors who come into the city, with us on the road to an effective and efficient Low Emission Zone.
“In the process so far, it has been clear that there is a good deal of support for the council’s drive to prioritise air quality and a recognition that it is critical to us becoming the vibrant and attractive city we want to be.”
Mark Flynn convener of Dundee City Council’s city development committee added: “A considerable amount of time and effort has been put in by a team of experts to establish what the most effective option is for improving the city’s air quality.
“Traffic modelling ruled out extending the LEZ to Lochee Road as a result of the predicted increase in traffic on surrounding streets and junctions and subsequently higher levels of congestion and emissions on a roads network never designed to deal with it.”
Other physical measures to help improve air quality in Lochee Road will be brought forward to the city development committee in due course. Assuming the revised timetable set out by Scottish Government for the introduction of LEZs in Scotland’s four main cities is adhered to, Dundee will introduce a LEZ in the spring of 2022.
In line with feedback from stakeholders, the report to the community safety and public protection committee recommends including a two-year grace period in the LEZ scheme, with enforcement beginning for all vehicles in spring of 2024, with no additional grace period for residents living within the LEZ boundary.
The LEZ will operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week and be enforced through a network of automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) cameras.
An LEZ will contribute to the broader city objectives and the vision to create a healthy, vibrant and attractive city by protecting public health through improving air quality in Dundee and achieving air quality compliance for NO2, PM10 and PM2.5.
Dundee’s LEZ will develop an environment that helps to promote more active and sustainable travel choices, contributes to the city’s ongoing transformational change and helps to promote Dundee as an inclusive and desirable place to live, invest, visit and learn.
If the community safety and public protection committee, which meets on Monday (June 7), agrees, the consultation will take place over the summer with a further report on the final stages of the process to come before the committee later in the year.
Pic-Dundee City Council
