A GLASGOW driver was slapped with a £900 fine in one month after being snared by the city’s new Low Emission Zone (LEZ) scheme.
Thousands of drivers have been caught up in Glasgow’s new LEZ rules, which is in its second month of operation.
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The number of motorists snared last month has doubled since it started in June.
Almost 6,000 Penalty Charge Notices were handed out last month, twice the 2922 issued in June, the first month of the scheme.
The £355,980 gathered by 5933 fines in July takes the total raised by the city council in just two months to £531,000.
And one unfortunate driver picked up PCN’s totalling £900 because they committed four offences during the month, doubling in cost as they went.
The LEZ has been introduced to reduce pollution, particularly from buses, HGV’s and older cars.
From the start of June, drivers of banned vehicles were fined entering Glasgow city centre at the rate of almost 100 per day, a total of 2922.
However, owners of diesel cars over eight years old and petrol vehicles dating from 2006 were warned that this was, in effect, a ‘soft launch’ with a grace period for people to get used to the scheme.
Only one £60 penalty charge notice was due to be issued per vehicle during the month.
However, officials promised that from July, ‘surcharging’ would come into force, whereby the penalty amount doubles with every subsequent breach.
Penalty rates are capped at £480 for cars and light goods vehicles and £960 for buses and HGV’s.
Despite the council saying previously that it did not expect to raise much income from the controversial scheme, June’s 2922 penalties alone brought in £175,320 if offenders paid the full amount.
A spokesperson for the council said: “To allow for a period of familiarisation, non-compliant vehicles detected in Glasgow’s Low Emission Zone received a maximum of one penalty charge notice during the zone’s first month of operation, June 2023.
“Surcharging, which allows the penalty amount to double for subsequent LEZ breaches, started in July and will begin after the first or previous penalty charge notice can be expected to have been received by the vehicle’s registered keeper.
“Glasgow’s plan to phase in a city centre Low Emission Zone was announced in 2018 to address decades of harmful air pollution.
“Since then there has been extensive communications and engagement to raise awareness of the scheme, its timescale for introduction and the availability of funding to ease compliance.
“While up to 90 per cent of vehicles currently entering the city centre will be unaffected, the LEZ standards will address the most polluting vehicles which are disproportionately creating the harmful concentrations of air pollution in the city centre.”
It is understood the local authority wishes to keep confidential the exact location of cameras which catch offenders.
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