In-fighting ‘led to £1bn tram debacle’

THE poor relationship between the council and tram company bosses was a major reason for the failure of the project, an inquiry heard yesterday.

An expert who reviewed the troubled scheme also claimed a more positive light was shone on proceedings than was reality.

Mike Heath, part of a team tasked by the Treasury with assessing the venture, said Transport Initiatives Edinburgh (TIE), the arms-length body formed to deliver the network, was ‘misleading’ in the information provided to his team.

It was also claimed the review noted recommended changes which were not then properly acted upon.

At the inquiry into the trams debacle – costs for the project spiralled from the predicted £375million to more than £1billion – Mr Heath said: ‘The difference of opinion of the two parties about who was responsible for design development a month after we’d signed the contract was clearly not going to bode well for the future. It always struck me that both parties had rushed to an adversarial approach rather early on.’

The review gave the project green status, which meant it was cleared to continue provided certain recommendations were acted upon.

But Mr Heath believes the team reached that conclusion only because they were not given a complete picture of the situation.

He said: ‘We formed the opinion things were going well and we were not disabused of that opinion.’

Mr Heath added that the team advised: ‘The project is pretty likely to be delivered late. If it’s delivered late it is almost certainly going to involve additional cost and there would be some significant reputational risk to both parties.’

He went on: ‘I would have expected that the recommendations would have been acted on, on the basis that’s effectively the relationship between that and the green status.’

Meanwhile, councillors yesterday approved the business case for extending Edinburgh’s tram network to Newhaven. Capital costs are estimated to be £165.2million.