Tram trouble

A big vote takes place today, and much hangs upon it: there is the economic and social well-being of those in and around its immediate and wider ambit; the potential for environmental degradation, logistical chaos and civic ruin; the lurking risk of unending international embarrassment and shame. And yes, I am of course talking about the Edinburgh tram.

With attention diverted elsewhere, on the very same day, near as damn it the Ides of March, the Scottish capital’s council votes on whether or not to extend the city’s truncated tram line, from York Place to Newhaven through the heart of Leith, at a cost continually rising and surely likely to be nearer £250 million than the £207m forecast in the final business case. Now, I don’t want to be a Cassandra – or is it a Jeremiah? – but by all the gods, this doesn’t half feel like an inauspicious moment to be taking such a decision and making such a move.

The Hardie Inquiry into the original fiasco has yet to deliver its report, the council’s own auditors have raised doubts at the eleventh hour about the resilience of the council’s final business case, and there is a widespread sense of fear and foreboding about just what may lie ahead if the project is given the green light at this point.

Many citizens feel that where

we are now should be the end of the first stage of consultation on the project, the beginning of the next, and not the point at which an irreversible decision will be made.

At Westminster today, MPS will vote according to their conscience, rather than following the orders of party managers, on whether or not to delay Brexit.

Oh that this freedom could be extended to Edinburgh’s city councillors – or that they could seize it for themselves – as they face their own vote today: on whether to throw caution to the wind and jump right in – ding! ding! – or whether to let prudence win the day and opt for delay. ANDREW MACKENZIE Constitution Street, Leith,

Edinburgh