SNP have presided over pollution failure
For immediate release 6 July 2011
Two of the three worst areas of the UK for air pollution around roads are in Scotland - Glasgow and the North-east, both of which failed to meet the European Union's hourly average NO2 standard last year. In addition to those two areas, Central Scotland and Edinburgh have also failed to meet the EU's annual average. Scottish Ministers are now writing, with UK Ministers, to the European Union to ask permission to postpone their compliance date until 2015, despite an action plan for Scottish measures which includes no mention whatsoever of any moves to reduce the level of car traffic.
Patrick Harvie MSP said:
"SNP Ministers have had four years to sort out Scotland's air quality, and these figures show how conclusively they have failed, especially in Glasgow and the North-east. Their dire record is a direct result of a systematic policy to fund ever more unnecessary motorways while squeezing both public transport and support for walking and cycling.
"Nitrogen dioxide at these levels has particularly severe effects on the young, especially on the lungs, and society is paying a high price for the SNP's car obsession. They are about to blow almost