LEZ: Why did I receive a text message alert about Edinburgh's new low emission zone?

A “selection” of RingGo app users received the alerts, marked as sent by ‘EdinburghCC’, on Thursday - less than 48 hours after enforcement of the LEZ comes into affect.

It comes with Edinburgh, Dundee and Aberdeen all introducing the regulations in city centres this week, one year after Glasgow did the same.

The zones are designed to limit the amount of older vehicles in the city centre in a bid to improve air quality. But they have proven controversial with business owners amid concerns it could reduce the amount of people travelling to city centres.

RingGo said the SMS had been sent to recent users in the area at the request of the city council.

A statement from RingGo said: “RingGo sent the SMS directly on behalf of Edinburgh City Council; no data was ever shared externally.

“This is common and we’ve performed several SMS activities like this across the UK with multiple councils whenever there are changes that affect users. These activities include road closures, emergency roadworks, the reintroduction of charges after Covid-19, and, in this case, Edinburgh's new low emission zone.”

Cllr Scott Arthur, transport convener for the city council, said: “We’ve used a wide variety of communications channels over the course of our two-year campaign to raise awareness of LEZ enforcement, which starts tomorrow. This included asking RingGo to send a reminder text message directly to their customers who’d recently used the service.”

City council leader Cammy Day had earlier said drivers in Edinburgh had been given a “fair period of notice” ahead of enforcement of LEZ.

He said: “We’ve been planning this for two years, we’ve been promoting this to businesses and commuters for the last two years.

“They know as at the first of June this year it will become live. So it has given a fair period of notice to people that it will come in, and we’ve been working with the business community to make sure that any impact on them is lessened.”

Fines double each time someone breaks the rules within a 90-day period, though the cost is halved if someone pays within 14 days of the ticket. The first breach costs £60.

It was revealed last week that Glasgow City Council had raked in more than £1 million in fines after introducing its own LEZ in June last year, having issued nearly 40,000 penalties.

Glasgow’s introduction of the LEZ has been called a "shambles", amid claims four out of every ten of the council’s own vehicles still do not comply with the regulations a year after they were introduced.

Lorna Slater, the co-leader of the Scottish Greens, said: “There is no such thing as a safe level of air pollution, and low emission zones have a key role to play in delivering cleaner, greener and safer cities.

“If we are to have liveable and clean cities, then we need to reduce the numbers of cars on our roads, and LEZs are a big step towards doing that. It has taken a lot of work by a lot of people to get here, but these zones will save lives and have a positive impact that will be felt for years to come.”