Business owners go into battle with council over Glasgow LEZ
Lady Poole will hear evidence in Edinburgh from both sides over the next two days.
Glasgow business owners are going to battle it out in court over the next couple of days with the city council to try to have the Low Emission Zone scrapped.
Legal action was launched back in June by the boss of a car repair centre which is just yards inside the boudary.
READ MORE: Glasgow LEZ: Heaviest polluting cars and vans banned from city centre
William Paton told Clyde 1: "People with 15 plate diesel cars (which are banned) won't buy a Tesla or a hybrid - they will simply go and get an older petrol car which has been made since 2006.
"Petrol vehicles emit 25% more emissions into the atmosphere which is against the whole point of net-zero.
"The whole policy is flawed and I struggle to understand the benefits from this because the pollution targets were already being met before the Low Emission Zone started back in June."
Generally diesel cars registered before September 2015 and petrol cars registered before 2006 will be slapped with a £60 fine when they cross the boundary of the Low Emission Zone.
READ MORE: Nearly 3,000 drivers fined for breaking LEZ rules in Glasgow
William fears that they could be forced to move the business outside of the town altogether.
He added: "We are really struggling to recruit staff because many of them have older vehicles and they do not want the added stress of having to park elsewhere.
"Moving the site would be an astronomical cost and we could even be left with no choice, but to close it altogether leaving 20 or 30 people out of a job."
Billy Gold runs the Hielan Jessie on the Gallowgate and claims he has lost between 10-15% of business since the heaviest polluting cars were banned from the LEZ.
He said: "People are going out earlier and going home earlier.
"As a rule, customers tend to spend less in the early part of the evening than the later part so this is a real shift in business for us."
A council spokeswoman said: “The council is satisfied that it correctly assessed available air quality data when taking the decision to implement the second phase of Glasgow’s Low Emission Zone, and as we have said previously, the legal action will be vigorously contested.”
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