Trams 'may worsen air quality' 18 | 07 | 2011

AS IF EDINBURGH'S ill-fated £545 million tram project needed any additional negative exposure, a senior council official has now dealt it another blow.

Robbie Beattie, the council's scientific and environmental services manager, has admitted the programme could worsen air pollution in some areas of the city by encouraging lorries and trucks on to Edinburgh's roads.

He believes the expected reduction in general traffic could have the knock-on effect of making the city more attractive to hauliers. Understandably, his comments will be seized upon by residents in some areas of the city who have long argued the trams will worsen air pollution by moving traffic away from the Capital's main arterial routes and on to residential streets.

In what is a rather strange contrast, Mr Beattie was swift to highlight the council is working with hauliers in an attempt to reduce emissions in order to avoid massive EU fines, which are expected to be levied at local authorities across the UK in the coming years.

But he did rule out the introduction of Low Emission Zones, such as those introduced in London earlier this year.

COMMENT: Pull the plug on the trams

And in one breath he said the introduction of the trams would have a positive impact on air pollution in some areas of the city, including Air Quality Management Areas, such as St John's Road, where emission levels are known to be high. But in the next said other parts of the Capital could see an increase in heavy goods vehicles.

"We're likely to see a downward trend on St John's Road and the Roseburn corridor," Beattie explained. "But 10% of the traffic (haulage vehicles] is responsible for 50% of the pollution in the air. The trams might make a bit more room for them. 
"Not all the traffic using the city is for the city. We need to try and encourage them to use the bypass rather than going through the town.

"We're contacting people like the Road Haulage Association (RHA) about various different types of vehicles and whether they can use greener vehicles.
"We're trying to be proactive. In the background, there's the threat of fines but national government is dealing with that. The Low Emission Zones is something we can look at if the current scheme doesn't work, but the first thing is to go into dialogue with people."

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Jamie Edwardes