East Dunbartonshire Council recently hosted an event to mark Clean Air Day.

Local companies, or those who trade in the area, are encouraged to be part of the Eco Stars Fleet Recognition Scheme. It highlights organisations who are operating in the most environmentally friendly way to reduce fuel use and emissions in their daily business.

There are 107 members of the East Dunbartonshire Scheme, including the Council itself.

Eco Stars targets companies who operate vehicles in or near Air Quality Management Areas (AQMA), and in East Dunbartonshire there are two: Bishopbriggs AQMA and Bearsden AQMA. In East Dunbartonshire 3,987 vehicles are covered by the scheme.

At the special event on Clean Air Day, Eco Star members were presented with a certificate showing their star rating from 1 to 5, based on a recent assessment of their operational and environmental performance.

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Councillor Susan Murray, Vice Convener of the Place, Neighbourhood & Corporate Assets Committee said: "Through our Air Quality Action Plans we are working with local people and businesses to clean up the air in our towns and villages. Clean Air Day is an opportunity to remind individuals and families what they can do to help achieve this aim and to recognise businesses who are doing their bit.

"Reducing car use by walking, cycling or using public transport is an obvious way we can all help reduce exhaust fumes. Not idling when we do use the car is another simple thing we can do. Although locally and nationally air quality standards are improving, air pollution continues to harm our health, particularly the health and wellbeing of vulnerable groups such as the young, elderly and those with medical conditions such as asthma."

John S L Watson Haulage, which has been operating for over 50 years from Huntershill Village in Bishopbriggs, joined the Eco Stars Scheme in 2017. Jimmy Watson, Transport Manager, said: "We are grateful to have a free independent audit of our fleet and delighted to have received positive feedback, as well as suggestions of areas for consideration moving forward. We revisited our environment policy and looked at simple things that we could do such as not having vehicles ticking over for any reason and route planning. It has made a big difference. We have also updated our telematics system which gave us greater feedback on fuel consumption and styles of driving, which we have fed into our driver CPC training program. Moving forward, we are looking at replacing vehicles that will keep us compliant for the new low emission zones."