A LOW emissions zone in Glasgow city centre will be extended to all vehicles by December 2022.

Emissions standards Euro 4 for petrol and Euro 6 for diesel will be enforced by Glasgow City Council.

The LEZ will no longer include a congestion charge which the council’s environmental policy committee had recommended.

The SNP wants to make it a separate issue so it can be debated in full on its own, rather than being twinned with the LEZ.

Councillor Anna Richardson, environment convener, said: “I’m delighted that we are implementing Scotland’s first LEZ to improve air quality for all.”

Petrol cars built after 2006 will be complaint with Euro 4 and for diesel, all cars after 2015.

Older cars can be retorfitted with diesel particulate filters to bring them up to standard.

Buses are being phased in, with 20 per cent to be adhering to the standards by December this year, then another 20 per cent every year until 2022.

When in full force it will see high emissions vehicles banned entirely from the city centre and this is hoped to improve air quality.

At the City Administration Committee today (Thursday), an amendment by the Scottish Greens to speed up the full expansion of the LEZ to 2020 was defeated.

A Labour group amendment also failed, which sought to embolden and press on with the plan to include a congestion charge for cars coming into the city.

The Conservative’s amendment to take out the congestion charge policy entirely from the LEZ was backed by the SNP and passed.

Councillor Matt Kerr, the Labour group’s transport spokesman, said: “We want to see more people in the city centre – walking, cycling or using other forms of public transport. We need real leadership and radical action to make that happen – and that’s what Labour proposed.”

The SNP has indicated it would support the delivery a separate policy while the Conservatives reject it as harmful to business.

Though the SNP did highlight “transport poverty” still affects motorists in Glasgow, of whom a congestion charge would adversely effect.

April 2018 research on deprived areas in Glasgow by Go Well that tells how “people living in deprived urban areas may be forced into being car owners despite experiencing facing financial difficulties, so that the phenomenon of ‘forced car ownership’ is not confined to remote rural areas”.

Councillor David Meikle said the Conservatives support the LEZ but that a congestion charge would “hit businesses hard”.

Bailie Christy Mearns of the Greens called it “disappointing” that the SNP sided with the Conservatives.

Emilia Hanna, of Friends of the Earth Scotland, said: “Today’s decision means the toxic, illegal levels of air pollution in Glasgow will carry on poisoning people’s lungs for at least four-and-a-half more years.”