We’re staggered by anger over trams, admits Dawe

Edinburgh’s council chief has been “staggered” by the level of public outrage over the decision to stop the controversial tram route short of the city centre.

But Jenny Dawe told The Scotsman the new plan to take the route from Edinburgh airport only as far as Haymarket could yet be revisited if officials found the proposal was “materially different” from the original vision for the project.

She also questioned whether contractors would sign up to the changes, which were voted through by opposition Labour and Tory councillors last week, in a surprise twist to the ongoing fiasco.

The Liberal Democrat leader of the local authority said: “All of us have been staggered at the numbers of e-mails and comments we’ve had from people – some who didn’t support trams in the first place – saying, ‘Can’t you revisit this, because it seems the daftest solution of all’.

“I think we’ve all been a bit taken aback – and I think Labour and the Conservatives might have been taken aback – because I’ve seen copies of what they’ve been sent as well.

“On our part, we would dearly love be able to revisit the situation. The problem is we have a rule on the council that you can’t revisit a decision that full council has taken within 12 months, unless there’s what is termed a ‘material change of circumstances’.”

The council’s Lib Dem group believes that may be the case after last week’s decision.

First Minister Alex Salmond has said a public inquiry into the project will be held, but not until there is “greater clarity” about the project, which has been hit by spiralling costs – up from £545 million to more than £800m – and feuding between contractor Bilfinger Berger and the council.

A decision was taken by the council last month to continue with the tram line to St Andrew Square in the city centre, but with a funding gap of about £230m. The Labour move to halt the line at Haymarket, backed by the Tories, aimed to prevent the council having to borrow this money, although it has since been claimed the curtailed scheme will lose £4m a year.

Ms Dawe said: “The Labour motion has given the chief executive and her team until Tuesday to sort this out. We were supposed to have signed up to this St Andrew Square deal by 1 September. The consortium was as taken aback as anybody by the decision. They weren’t expecting that – they had all their sub-contractors and everybody ready to go.

“Clearly they’re now considering their position as well. What we don’t know is whether they’ll be prepared to go to Haymarket only.

“There are all sorts of factors now concerning Haymarket that haven’t been worked out. There is potential for factors to come in that people were unaware of on Thursday [when the vote was taken], but it would have to be something that was new to the situation.”

Questions have been raised over the funding from Scottish Government agency Transport Scotland, because the route is now non-profit making and the benefit-cost ratio has dropped dramatically.

“There has not been any detailed working up done on a line that was going to end at Haymarket,” Ms Dawe said.

“There’s an awful lot of work that the [council] team started pretty well straight away. They have in front of them a decision that their job is to implement as officers of the council.

“But in the next two days, things could come to light that would be that material change of circumstances that would mean we would have to call a special council meeting to look again at the way forward.”

Council chief executive Sue Bruce said yesterday the council was now developing an “implementation plan” for the work.

She said: “Work to analyse the issues arising from the decision of the council is in progress and we are developing an implementation plan.

“No further decisions have yet been taken on the forthcoming works on Princes Street and will be subject to discussions with the contractor.”

In June, Mr Salmond agreed to hold a full public inquiry into the trams project, but he was accused yesterday of “dragging his feet”.

Lothians Labour MSP Kezia Dugdale said: “It is time to rise above party politics, stop the blame game and get to the bottom of the tram fiasco. A full, independent public inquiry is the only way we can find out exactly how the tram project has been allowed to go so badly wrong.”

She also claimed Labour had been presented with three poor choices last week – taking the trams to Haymarket or St Andrew Square or cancelling the whole project.

A spokesman for the First Minister said: “We will be delighted to have a public inquiry into the trams fiasco, and will do so once there is greater clarity about the direction of the project so that its full circumstances can be examined”.