Scottish Labour: SNP Needs To Tackle Air Pollution

Scottish Labour says people are dying because of air pollution, and says the SNP is not doing enough to tackle the problem.

Scottish Labour's Environmental Justice Spokesperson Sarah Boyack has slammed the SNP Government's lack of progress on tackling dangerous air pollution levels.
 
Sarah Boyack's motion, 'Air Pollution in Scotland', has gained cross party support from Green, Lib Dem, Independent and SNP MSPs and was debated at Holyrood last week.  
 
Friends of the Earth Scotland statistics suggest that more than 3,500 people in Scotland die early because of exposure to toxic emissions. 
 
Following a Supreme Court determination that new air-quality plans should be devised before the end of 2015 to ensure that Scotland can comply with EU law, and the admission by Volkswagen Automobile Group that its diesel vehicles were fitted with "defeat devices" to produce favourable emission test results, the SNP Government announced its Cleaner Air For Scotland Strategy in early November. 
 
Criticising the strategy, Sarah Boyack used the Members Debate to highlight the delays built into the timetable.  
 
She said:
 
"36 areas across Scotland have dangerously high levels of pollution and each year of inaction will see up to 3500 Scots each die from respiratory and coronary diseases as a result.  Air quality is not just an environmental priority; it is a moral and public health issue which the SNP Government is failing on. 
 
"These are busy densely populated transit routes, where many residents already suffer significant health inequalities. If we want to get people from A to B in more active ways and on public transport, the government must ensure those choices don’t create more health risks.
 
"This debate comes just weeks after the SNP Government’ Cleaner Air Strategy paid lip service to the problem and kicked the issue into the long grass.  They want to take 3 years to 'redesign the wheel' while they mull over the implementation of Low Emissions Zones. "