The cover story
New rules in Scottish cities more generous than English zones – but experts still don’t know how they ’re going to be enforced
Classics younger than 40-years-old willbe allowed to enter Scotland’s new Low Emission Zones (LEZs) – but experts are demanding clarification as to how it will be enforced.
The zones have been introduced in Edinburgh, Dundee, Aberdeen and Glasgow but the exemption for ‘Historic’ vehicles – which in Scotland is recognised at 30 years, rather than the 40-year rule used elsewhere in the UK.
Last year, Transport Scotland told the Federation of British Historic Vehicle Clubs (FBHVC) that it was considering the use of ANPR automatic number plate recognition) to enforce LEZs. However, the national database would need to be kept up to date with exempt vehicles should Transport Scotland take this route or it might lead to cases where an exemption has been granted – such as a change of vehicle tax class or MoT status not currently reflected in the database.
The provision of a reliable and accurate database to make ANPR workable for classics remains a cause of concern. The federation’s legislation director Lindsay Irvine said: ‘We have recently made further inquiries of Transport Scotland and it would seem that we will need to pursue finer detail with Glasgow authorities. However our prediction is that the only workable solution will be an ANPR database based on the age of the vehicle on the date of entry into the zone ie. greater than 30 years old. As with the exemption from MoT, enforcement of the substantial change element will be on a risk basis with occasional sampling by authorities rather than individual declarations.’
Each of the aforementioned cities’ planned in a period of grace before enforcing the zones to allow residents time to switch to cleaner vehicles. However, Glasgow’s LEZ came into force for buses in 2018 but will apply to all vehicles owned by non-residents from June of this year and for zone residents in June 2024, with the other three cities set to follow next year. CCW approached Transport Scotland for its view on how the exemption for ‘Historic’ vehicles would be enforced, but no one from the agency respo
