The drummer in Scots rock band Gun has been named as the anonymous donor who pledged £100,000 for a legal fight against Glasgow’s Low Emission Zone (LEZ).
Paul McManus has given £40,000 to William Paton’s LEZ fightback fund website, with the promise of another £60,000 available "when needed".
The rock star, who has a number of business interests, and is one of Scottish Labour’s biggest donors, said he believed the charge was a “cynical stealth tax, levied by a failed and discredited administration.”
READ MORE: Council accused of profiteering as Glasgow LEZ fines double
Glasgow’s LEZ came into force on June 1 and means any vehicle which does not meet emission standards gets slapped with an initial £60 fine.
Last month, we revealed that nearly 150 drivers a day are being hit with the penalty charge notice.
William Paton, whose garage is located 500m inside the zone, is challenging the anti-pollution measure in the courts.
Last month, Lady Poole, gave permission to the owner of Patons Accident Repair Centre in Townhead to proceed to judicial review. The case will be heard next month.
The businessman set up a crowdfunder to help pay for his court battle.
READ MORE: Glasgow LEZ could be followed by congestion charge
Mr McManus said he had donated because he believed the charge was “aimed at and has a significantly disproportionate effect on poor, low-paid, hardworking families who are currently struggling to cope with an unprecedented increase in their cost of living.”
He said he was willing to increase his contribution: “I am committed to fighting this all the way and I’ll make available additional and sufficient funds to ensure we can take the SNP Glasgow City Council on in any forthcoming court cases.”
The musician also hit out at proposals for a congestion charge for cars coming into the city. He said this would be a “further attack on vulnerable people.”
Last year, Mr McManus donated £130,000 to Scottish Labour, saying he had been “very impressed with the performance and most of the policies of both Anas Sarwar and Keir Starmer.”
Labour councillors in Glasgow were initially supportive of the LEZ, and even criticised the SNP administration for not implementing it sooner.
However, in May, just two days before it was brought in, George Redmond, the leader of the Labour group on the council called for LEZ to be delayed by a year.
Gun has released seven studio albums, three of which made the UK Top 20.
Their biggest hit was a cover of Cameo’s ‘Word Up!’, which broke into the Top 10.
READ MORE: Agenda: Why we have to fight the Glasgow LEZ
Meanwhile, a new report has shown an increase in pollution in the city centre.
Levels of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) have risen at almost all monitoring stations in the city centre.
The annual report on air quality shows an average increase of 20% across 27 sites.
However, this spike is coming after lockdown, when there were far fewer cars on the road.
The Annual Progress Report on Air Quality, shared with the council's Net Zero committee states: “As pandemic restrictions eased further in 2022, a significant rise in NO2 levels was recorded at almost all city centre locations monitored by diffusion tube, with annual mean NO2 rising by between 4% and 44% across the 27 monitoring locations.
“The average rise in recorded NO2 levels by city centre diffusion tubes between 2021 and 2022 was 20%.”
While it found some sites showed a small reduction in NO2 levels, there was an increase in man others, and two locations – Gordon Street and Hope Street – were above target levels.
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