Glasgow announces free public event for Clean Air Day

Glasgow City Council has announced its plans to hold a free public event for this year’s Clean Air Day, which is set to take place on Thursday 20 June.

The city council will hold the event at the heart of the city’s George Square for the day, which will be co-ordinated by the charity Environmental Protection Scotland.

The day will feature stalls from green businesses, musical performances, electric vehicle displays and a mini-stunt track for budding cyclists to try out their BMX skills.

Bus operators First Glasgow and Stagecoach will too be represented in the square, where they will be showcasing their low-emissions buses and raising awareness of Glasgow’s ‘bus-to-bus’ travelcard the Glasgow Tripper.

Picnic tables will also be laid out in a street outside the City Chambers which will be closed off to traffic especially for the event.

Clean Air Day aims to encourage people to ditch their petrol or diesel vehicles for active travel, public transport or using an electric vehicle.

It will be the first Clean Air Day since Glasgow’s launched Scotland’s first Low Emissions Zone in January.

Cllr Anna Richardson, city convener of Glasgow City Council’s Sustainability and Carbon Reduction Committee, said: ‘Clean Air Day is a fantastic, free outdoor event dedicated to highlighting what we can all do to improve the quality of the air we breathe.

George Square, Glasgow. Credit: Stinglehammer (CC BY-SA 4.0)

‘We know that air pollution is bad for our health and that it disproportionately affects the most vulnerable in our society. We’re determined to clean up Glasgow’s air and our trailblazing Low Emission Zone which we introduced last year, is testament to that pledge.

‘Events like Clean Air Day are a great way to increase awareness of the actions we can all take and I can’t wait to come along and experience all it has to offer.’

Duncan Cameron, operations director for First Glasgow buses, said: ‘First Glasgow is delighted to be playing our part in the Clean Air Day event in the city centre.

‘We have been a key partner of Glasgow City Council in implementing the city’s new low emissions zone and have invested over £30m in new ultra-low emission vehicles for the people of Glasgow and there is much more to come as we continue our journey to improve air quality in the city.’

Glasgow is one of four Scottish cities which have implemented or will implement Low Emissions Zones by 2020 in a bid to improve air quality.

The other cities in the first wave of LEZs are Aberdeen, Dundee and Edinburgh, which is currently consulting on its ‘twin boundary’ LEZ.

Glasgow’s LEZ currently applies only to buses passing through the city centre but will include cars and other vehicles from the end of 2022.