‘Expert told to shut up over trams’
● Balfour claims councillors were misinformed about ‘mince’ contract
A council legal expert was told to “shut up” when he challenged senior colleagues about inaccurate information given to councillors over Edinburgh’s trams scheme, the inquiry into the troubled project has heard.
On the third day of the inquiry, Jeremy Balfour said he believed councillors had been misinformed about the contract and liabilities before they gave the go-ahead for the project in 2007.
A council legal expert knew councillors were being given inaccurate information on the Edinburgh trams scheme but was told to “shut up” when he challenged senior colleagues about it, the inquiry into the troubled project has heard.
Former city Tory group leader Jeremy Balfour, now a Lothians MSP, also said the same official, Alastair Maclean, believed the original tram contract was “a piece of mince”.
On the third day of the inquiry into the trams fiasco, chaired by Lord Hardie, Mr Balfour said he believed councillors had been misinformed about the contract and liabilities before they gave the goahead for the project in 2007.
He said: “Members of the legal team, who came in subsequent to all of this, their view was that the original contract we had was mince, to use their words.”
In his written submission to the inquiry, Mr Balfour names Mr Maclean, who joined the council as head of legal in 2009 but no longer works for the authority.
He writes: “I now know the original contract was a piece of mince – not my words but those of Alastair Maclean.”
Mr Balfour, who was Tory group leader 2010-12, told the inquiry that Mr Maclean had said during a conversation at the City Chambers that he knew details about the project given to councillors were inaccurate. He said: “My understanding was he had challenged senior officers in regard to the information we were being given at that time and he was told to shut up and that wasn’t his role.”
Mr Balfour also claimed documents showing what senior councillors had been told at private briefings had now “disappeared”. Mr Balfour said: “I was told that, of course we trust you never to leak any information, but there are leaks; the Evening News has its sources; it is getting its information from somewhere.”
Earlier there were feisty exchanges as former Labour council leader Donald Anderson was challenged over his claims that arms-length company TIE had deliberately misled council chiefs.
Mr Anderson told the inquiry on Tuesday that TIE representatives had told councillors and officials that adjudications over disputes with contractor Bilfinger Berger were going in TIE’S favour when that was not the case. “If you lose adjudications and you present them as being successes, that’s deliberate misinformation,” he said.
But yesterday Douglas Fair- ley QC, representing a group of ex-employees of TIE, showed Mr Anderson a series of minutes from meetings where TIE chief executive Richard Jeffrey had reported Bilfinger winning adjudications.
Mr Fairley said it was reasonable to infer this was not good news. Mr Anderson said it was difficult to tell, adding: “The point that I would simply make is that key elected members and officers of the council weren’t given access to the adjudication decisions in any detail.”