About Advertise with us Get our newsletter
Facebook Twitter Instagram

News

Re-elected MSP Sandra White puts air pollution on Byres Road top of her to-do list

Air pollution tops the list of issues for newly-re-elected SNP MSP Sandra White

Newly re-elected MSP for Glasgow Kelvin Sandra White says she is putting tackling air pollution on Byres Road top of her agenda when her new term gets under way.

Ms White comfortably increased her majority on Thursday to return her for the second time to a constituency she describes as "fabulous and diverse".

Speaking to Glasgow West End Today on Monday, she said she was eager to get on with business in her seat, which stretches from High Street in the city centre to Partick and Thornwood in the west.

She says she also wants to push the Community Empowerment Bill which she says will make a major difference to parts of Kelvin and the West End.

Watch: Sandra White says she has plenty of work to do now that she has been voted back in to Parliament.

Byres Road has been a designated Pollution Zone for a number of years, but traffic levels remain high and local residents continue to worry about the effect of air pollution on their health and on the climate.

Over 300 people die early from exposure to fine particle air pollution in Glasgow every year, according to Friends of the Earth

Ms White said: "First thing on the agenda for me is the air pollution on Byres Road and I have met with the group that is looking at that issue, and I will be raising that with ministers.

"The second issue is the Community Empowerment Bill, which gives great powers to local communities and my intention is to run meetings and workshops from June and September onwards on that."

She added: "There are lots of things I want to do and have wanted to do, and I want those things to come to fruition.

"Social housing for instance is a big issue, and I want to make sure that we can get some land for housing, which is a problem in this particular area of Kelvin.

"The other thing that I put forward is my private member's Bill for responsible parking to enable people who are disabled and people with kids to walk on the pavements without having to dodge round cars."

Ms White increased her majority to just over 4000, seeing off a challenge from Patrick Harvie for the Scottish Greens ahead of Labour's Michael Shanks.

Share this story
Glasgow West End Today Loading