Edinburgh City Council consider ban on 'gas-guzzling' SUVs

Restrictions on SUVs could be enforced through parking permits and environmental orders

Edinburgh council has backed a call to consider banning "gas-guzzling" SUVs from parts of the city.

Greens councillor Chas Booth said they endangered pedestrians, created potholes and were bad for the environment.

But Conservative councillor Marie-Clair Munro urged her constituents to "crack on" if they wanted to buy one.

The issue was raised last week at the transport and environment committee, which looked at road safety.

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Members at the meeting discussed what action the local authority was taking.

This included increasing the number of pedestrian crossings, 20mph zones and driver awareness events for young newly-qualified motorists.

Cllr Booth highlighted the "weight and size of vehicles" and the impact on road safety.

And he said SUV's were becoming increasingly popular across Europe.

"Now it may be appropriate for a farmer in Fife to have a Land Rover, but it's not appropriate for a banker in Bruntsfield - if they don't also own a farm up in the Highlands - it's not appropriate for them to have a massive great gas guzzler," Cllr Booth added.

An amendment tabled by Cllr Booth noted research suggested pedestrian deaths involving SUVs were "increasing at a faster rate than other cars"

In recent months Edinburgh SUV owners have been targeted by environmental activists, who said they intended to make it "impossible" to own one in the city.

The Tyre Extinguishers group let the air out of around 100 4x4s in the New Town, Morningside and Portobello.

Cllr Munro, who is a local councillor for Bruntsfield, said: "Somebody's job and how hard they work and what they choose to spend their money on is entirely down to them; that's their house, their vehicles, that's where they shop.

"I just wanted to put that on record if anybody's listening from Bruntsfield. If you want to buy an SUV, crack on it's your money. It would just be nice if it was electric."

'Abraham M1 Tank'

An amendment tabled by Cllr Booth noted research suggested pedestrian deaths involving SUVs were "increasing at a faster rate than other cars" and that the European Transport Safety Council had called to "ban SUVs in urban areas".

Agreed unanimously by councillors, it called for the next road safety report coming forward in March to "explore the feasibility of steps to discourage or restrict larger and heavier vehicles in the city".

Restrictions on SUVs could be enforced through parking permits and environmental orders, the amendment said.

Cllr Booth said pedestrian deaths in the US were at their highest level for the last 40 years and cited research from Belgium which found larger vehicles are more likely to have blind spots.

"In fact there was one analysis that shows the Abraham M1 tank has better visibility - fewer blind spots - than many of the gas guzzlers currently on our roads," he said.

"The primary responsibility for this lies with the UK government because the vast majority road safety on UK roads is reserved and if they were taking road safety seriously they would be taking action on this.

"But we need to look at what we can do at council level to address this as well."

Cllr Munro joked that "no tanks have gone through Machmont, Bruntsfield, Merchiston or Greenbank".