Glasgow City Council made almost £500,000 from the Low Emission Zone (LEZ) during it’s first four months, data has revealed.
The council released figures that show it recovered £478,560 in fines from June to the end of September.
This is after 20,134 penalty charge notices (PCNs) were issued.
Glasgow’s LEZ covers the city centre bounded by the M8 to the north and west, the River Clyde to the south and Saltmarket/High Street to the east.
STV NewsAll vehicles entering this area need to comply with the LEZ restrictions, and cars that fail face a penalty charge.
The initial penalty charge for non-compliant vehicles is £60 but the fine is halved if paid within 14 days.
However, the fine doubles each time the vehicle enters the restricted city centre zone.
Glasgow City Council said all the money earned by LEZ would only be spent to reduce air pollution within the city or meet the council’s climate change targets.
Scottish Conservative shadow transport minister Graham Simpson MSP said: “It is clear that Glasgow’s low emission zone has clobbered hard-pressed motorists for huge sums of money, only a few months since it was imposed.
“A rising number are being hit with the council’s new full-penalty fines, which total nearly £1,000.
“The scheme has been abysmally badly handled by Glasgow’s SNP-led council. They couldn’t even ensure that its own vehicles complied, and there have been a shocking number of cases where they’ve had to concede people were wrongly penalised, or that the rules weren’t followed.
“Ordinary Glaswegians, and in particular motorists and city centre businesses, are paying a huge price for this ill-thought-out policy.
“The SNP council must be upfront about how they intend to spend this money and other cities across Scotland must learn from how Glasgow’s Low Emission Zone has been so badly botched.”
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