City Councillors are set to allocate another £100,000 of taxpayers cash to cover costs associated with the Edinburgh Tram Inquiry.
Over eight years in the making, the inquiry looking into the construction of the first part of the city’s line which ran until recently from Airport to York Place (now it stops at St Andrew Square until the extended line to Newhaven is opened) is expected to publish findings in the next six months.
It comes as tram testing begins on the new extension through Leith to Newhaven, a section which was initially supposed to be completed as part of the first line before the project was scaled back.
Councillors will be asked to grant an additional £100,000 funding for “further funding for both the Inquiry and Tram-related litigations” on Thursday (March 16).
The sum was revealed in council documents intended to be heard on the B agenda (ie in private without press or public present) shared with the Local Democracy Reporting Service.
The report will be heard in private as a ‘B agenda’ item at full council with limited details set to be discussed during the public session.
The latest request for more funds comes on top of £2.1 million approved by the council in August 2019 to meet legal and other costs associated with the probe which has been led by Lord Hardie.
The Inquiry, funded by Transport Scotland, has cost £13 million – regularly cited as costing more than the Chilcot Inquiry into the Iraq war.
Some of the increased costs are associated with ongoing court action by the council against Transport Initiatives Edinburgh, the company set up by the authority to manage the tram line’s construction, and DLA Piper, the council’s former legal advisers during the project.
The Edinburgh Tram Inquiry has been tasked with finding out why the project was finished five years late, ran £375 million over budget and delivered a significantly shorter line than was initially planned.
The Trams to Newhaven extension due to open in ‘spring’, which is currently running tests with slow-moving trams testing the line was originally envisaged to be built as part of the first scheme before it ran into funding difficulties which at one stage might have meant the city would have only had a tram line from the airport to Haymarket Station.
The council report said: “Once the Inquiry publishes its report the council and its advisers will need to consider the outcome and recommendations in detail to be able to respond to the findings and implement any recommendations, as well as consider matters in relation to the paused litigation.
“It is therefore recommended that further funding is made available to support this work.”
by Donald Turvill, Local Democracy Reporter.
The Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) is a public service news agency. It is funded by the BBC, provided by the local news sector (in Edinburgh that is Reach plc (the publisher behind Edinburgh Live and The Daily Record) and used by many qualifying partners. Local Democracy Reporters cover news about top-tier local authorities and other public service organisations.
The Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) is a public service news agency. It is funded by the BBC, provided by the local news sector (in Edinburgh that is Reach plc (the publisher behind Edinburgh Live and The Daily Record) and used by many qualifying partners. Local Democracy Reporters cover news about top-tier local authorities and other public service organisations.
COSTS OF TRAMS INQUIRY and the project: The true cost of the trams Project is near £1.5 billion. The extra £100,000 is peanuts to those in charge. The income from the trams will never repay the project costs. The political people who say that this project is within budget and on time are being more than a little disingenuous. Everything associated with the Trams Project is a scandal.
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