Environmentally-friendly projects share windfall from polluting driver fines

A project which supports people with mental health issues to build their own bikes and an urban rewilding scheme which will establish wildflower meadows in low-income communities are among a host of community-led initiatives to have received funding from fines levied against drivers who fell foul of Scotland’s first low emission zone.

Hundreds of thousands in pounds amassed in penalty charges via Glasgow City Council’s LEZ has gone to a range of environmentally friendly ventures throughout the city, with the tens of thousands of fines that have been issued allowing grassroots organisations to bankroll work designed to improve the air quality.

They include Common Wheel, a charity based in the Maryhill area of the city which works to ensure people with mental illnesses are able to live a meaningful and satisfying life. The charity, which received more than £32,000, runs two hour long courses where dedicated engineers teach people how to strip an old bike and rebuild it into one they can ride away and keep.

A host of community projects have benefited from penalty charges accrued via Glasgow's low emission zone. Picture: John Devlin | John Devlin

The local parent council at Shawlands Primary school in the southside of the city has also been awarded nearly £50,000 to completely transform a playground running alongside a busy main road and bus route. The concrete area will be turned into a “rich” and “varied” green space, allowing children to grow their own food and monitor biodiversity.

Read more: Tories pledge to ban new low emission zones in Scotland

The LEZ funding has also provided nearly £23,000 to the Wheatley Foundation for its urban rewilding project, which plans to transform at least eight areas spanning 1.5 hectares of grassland and brownfield space into wildflower meadows.

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Elsewhere, Glasgow Kelvin College has been allocated nearly £30,000 towards a climate engagement learning garden at its Easterhouse campus. The project aims to transform swathes of derelict land in green space with a rainwater harvesting system.

The LEZ policy was introduced to improve air quality in the city. Picture: Getty/iStockphoto | Getty Images/iStockphoto

In all, more than £730,000 in LEZ revenues has been directed to the projects to date, with the council outlining its continuing commitment to putting the penalty charge revenues to community use.

Read more: The street where Scotland's first low emission zone has had the biggest impact on pollution

Glasgow's LEZ came into effect for all vehicles in May 2022, with a one-year grace period on enforcement, which then commenced in June the following year. The policy was introduced to reduce levels of harmful vehicle emissions in the city.

Almost 30,000 LEZ fines were issued into Glasgow during the scheme’s second year of operation, raising a total of £756,990. An average of 2,500 non-compliant vehicles were recorded per month.

Details of the funding will be set out at a meeting of the local authority’s net zero and climate progress monitoring city policy committee this week.

In a report prepared for the meeting, George Gillespie, the council’s executive director of neighbours, regeneration, and sustainability, said that councillors would have the change to visit some of the initiatives in the near future.

“The successful delivery of funded community based projects has demonstrated the benefits achieved through community led climate initiatives,” he wrote. “The council will seek to continue to identify ways to support such initiatives moving forward.”