Thursday August 13th 2026
Gordon Street, Glasgow
Written by Local Democracy Reporter, Sarah Hilley
One Glasgow street has shown a “significant” rise in a type of air pollution while all other locations across the city centre have stayed stable.
Gordon Street, which is home to Glasgow Central Station, recorded an increase in Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2) in 2025 compared to 2024 while all other city centre sites only showed slight differences in one type of tests.
Glasgow City Council intend to investigate the spike for Gordon Street, which has a taxi rank.
Speaking at yesterday’s net zero and climate progress monitoring city policy committee, an official said there is an “average reduction of 20 per cent in NO2 levels across the city centre” according to diffusion tube monitoring.
The council officer added that levels in the centre between 2024 to 2025 are “relatively stable” with slight increases and decreases noted.
He added: “However it is worth noting that the result from the Gordon Street diffusion tube observed a more significant increase between these years. It will be the subject of more investigations and ongoing monitoring.”
He later told the meeting: “Gordon Street station will warrant closer study to potentially identify if there are any site specific factors that apply here.”
Gordon Street measured 29.8 µg/m3 NO2 in 2024 and 37.9 µg/m3 in 2025 – but measured levels were still within 10 per cent of objectives last year.
Commenting on the wider city centre air quality situation, a council report said: “Comparing 2025 with 2022, the last full year before the introduction of the Glasgow LEZ, shows locations within the zone have observed an average reduction in annual mean NO2 of 20 per cent.”
A council report said: “Monitoring of NO2 is undertaken using a combination of both automatic monitoring stations and diffusion tubes.
It added: ” Levels of NO2 in 2025 at all automatic monitoring stations were below the objective levels.
“No exceedances of the annual mean NO2 objective in 2025 were recorded in monitoring conducted by diffusion tube, continuing the compliance seen in 2024.”
Another air quality measurement – particulate matter – was assessed as satisfactory in 2025 in Glasgow with objectives met.
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