The businessman who led the failed legal challenge against Glasgow's Low Emission Zone has branded the system "corrupt" after new figures showed pollution levels were already below legal limits before private motorists started being fined.
William Paton, who fronted the Court of Session challenge against Glasgow's LEZ, said the latest findings had left him convinced campaigners had been right to question the need for extending the scheme to private vehicles.
Official monitoring data analysed by The Herald shows nitrogen dioxide levels recorded by the main monitoring networks in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Dundee were below legal limits in the final full year before enforcement against private motorists began.
Nearly 250,000 penalty notices worth at least £15.5 million have since been issued across Scotland's four Low Emission Zone cities.
Mr Paton said the findings reinforced his belief that councils and ministers pressed ahead with the schemes despite evidence showing legal air-quality targets had already been achieved.
"Before I got into this, I hated when people said everything's corrupt," he said.
"But having gone through this process, you actually realise that it is corrupt.
"These guys making these decisions are not interested in what's best for the people they serve.
"They had an agenda and, come hell or high water, they were going through it."
Mr Paton was one of the leading figures behind the campaign group LEZ Fightback, which unsuccessfully challenged Glasgow's Low Emission Zone before enforcement against private motorists began in June 2023.
Campaigners argued the scheme would unfairly affect motorists, businesses and lower-income households while imposing significant costs on people reliant on older vehicles.
The challenge was ultimately rejected by judges, with campaigners later left facing legal costs of around £130,000.
Mr Paton said the most frustrating aspect of the case was what he believes was the court's treatment of air-quality evidence.
He said campaigners had presented monitoring data from around Glasgow which showed pollution levels had already fallen below legal limits and were continuing to decline before phase two of the LEZ came into force.
"The outcome of the case was the most disappointing thing of all," he said.
"We had black-and-white evidence that live monitoring from stations around Glasgow showed the legal threshold had been met in previous years.
"More importantly, it predicted a continued downward trend without the introduction of phase two of the LEZ."
Mr Paton said campaigners believed this was the central issue in the case.
Instead, he claims Glasgow City Council and the Scottish Government relied on a different methodology based on earlier traffic modelling exercises carried out years before enforcement began.
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"This was our primary argument and we lost this argument, and ultimately the case, due to a technicality," he said.
"The council and the Scottish Government did not argue over the real-world evidence that was presented.
"They squirmed out of it by arguing a difference in methodology.
According to Mr Paton, the authorities relied heavily on traffic modelling work carried out in 2017 when assessing whether the second phase of Glasgow's LEZ should proceed.
He argues those projections were produced years before major changes in travel patterns brought about by the Covid pandemic and the rise of hybrid working.
"They consulted a traffic model prediction that had been carried out in 2017," he said.
"That was the document used to decide whether to proceed with phase two to affect motorists.
"Essentially it was guesswork carried out half a decade before the decision was made, and before the biggest shift in working patterns in a generation.
"It was before hybrid working and working from home became the norm post Covid.
Mr Paton said he remained astonished that, in his view, historical modelling was given greater weight than actual monitoring results.
"Unbelievably, as their methodology (guess work) was different to our methodology (actual data taken from monitoring stations in real time) they couldn't be compared," he said.
"As Glasgow City Council had consulted any kind of legal document, no matter how much it differed from real-world data, the decision to proceed was deemed lawful."
The latest figures obtained by the Herald are likely to add fresh fuel to that debate.
They show Glasgow's eight official monitoring sites were below the legal annual nitrogen dioxide limit in 2022, the final full year before private motorists became subject to penalties.
The highest reading was recorded at Glasgow Central Station at 39.1 micrograms per cubic metre, below the legal limit of 40.
Official monitoring networks in Edinburgh, Dundee and Aberdeen also recorded annual average nitrogen dioxide concentrations below legal thresholds before enforcement against private motorists began in those cities in 2024.
Mr Paton said ministers and councils could have chosen a different course.
"They could have come out smelling of roses and said, 'Look, we've done such a good job with phase one and getting the buses in line that we don't need to proceed with phase two involving private vehicles'," he said.
"That would have shown they were really good at what they do.
"But they weren't interested in doing that.
"All they were interested in doing was implementing it."
He added that many motorists had altered their lives because they believed the measures were essential.
"Everyone was scared of this thing happening," he said. "People were worried about buying new cars.
"People were worried about being isolated.
"People were worried their grandkids wouldn't be able to visit them.
"People made sacrifices because they were told this was necessary."
He said the latest findings would leave many questioning whether those sacrifices had been justified.
Glasgow City Council and the Scottish Government have consistently maintained that Low Emission Zones are intended to improve air quality, protect public health and reduce harmful vehicle emissions.
Supporters argue legal compliance should not be viewed as the finish line and that further reductions in pollution can still deliver significant public-health benefits.
A Glasgow City Council spokesman said: “These comments, ultimately, revisit and reheat arguments advanced during the unsuccessful judicial review. On that occasion, the court remarked that they were ‘not well-founded’ and went on to establish that Glasgow’s LEZ scheme was both lawful and proportionate."
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