By Malachi Malagrowther
Labour supporting Lord Hardie’s nine-year inquiry into the Edinburgh trams fiasco, at a cost of £13 million, from which he earned over one million pounds, clearly concluded that failings by the Edinburgh City Council officials and its associated arms-length companies were to blame for the debacle which was delivered five years later than scheduled and cost some £1 billion, almost double the original estimate.
Tie Ltd, the company chosen by Labour to deliver the project was criticised for its mishandling of the project and particularly not cooperating or collaborating with the other key stakeholders in the project – Edinburgh City Council and the Scottish Government. Newspaper columnists have not acknowledged that the SNP consistently opposed the proposed scheme due to the lack of detail on the proposed costs and timescales.
Unionist commentators seized on Lord Hardie’s comments on John Swinney and the SNP’s decision not to involve Transport Scotland. They glossed over Labour’s key role in the affair – aided by the BBC who refused the SNP’s John Mason a comeback on Wednesday’s Politics Show after Labour and Tory MSPs attacked the SNP on Edinburgh trams. On Thursday after FMQ’s coverage, the BBC had Simon Johnson from The Daily Telegraph and former Labour Policy Director Gina Davidson now with London based LBC Radio as the guest pundits. At the end Kirsten Campbell introduced the Edinburgh Tram inquiry, which was not raised at FMQs as they knew it wouldn’t go well for the Unionist parties, and this allowed Simon Johnson and Gina Davidson to wade in against John Swinney without any counter opinion.
Labour, backed by the Lib Dems and Tories, were the main cheerleaders for the scheme and TIE’s ability to deliver the project on time and on budget.
In March 2003 Labour’s Transport Minister Iain Gray awarded £375m from the Scottish Executive’s integrated transport fund to Edinburgh city council to build two tram lines to serve the north and west, “the first to be running by 2009”. Mr Gray also says the money would pay for “at least” the North Edinburgh Loop. The Labour council believed this will also pay for a line from Haymarket to the airport.
In March 2006 the Tram Bill was passed by MSPs voting 88 to 20 in favour. The new Transport Minister Lib Dem Tavish Scott raises funding to £490m. The SNP, and in particular Kenny MacAskill, opposed the Bill on grounds that the business case didn’t stack up, but were heavily defeated by Labour, Tory and Lib Dem MSPs. Labour appointed Tie Ltd to run the project.
When the SNP minority government took office in 2007, they were forced into diverting £500 million from the transport budget for dualling the A9 into the tram project by Tory, Labour and Lib Dem MSPs.
During the crucial debate on 27 June 2007, Wendy Alexander told the Scottish Parliament, “The Auditor General concluded that the trams projects show clear corporate governance; well-defined project management; sound financial management in reporting; good risk management procedures; and a procurement strategy aimed at minimising risk. Yet, prejudice still prevails”. And that “The Auditor General states that the Edinburgh airport rail link project remains within the cost envelope of £650 million, as previously stated, with a rise of less than 4 per cent over earlier budget estimates”.
Labour’s Malcolm Chisholm said “Indeed nobody with more experience of digging up Edinburgh can be found than the company that has been awarded that part of the contract”; and “The people (TIE Ltd) who are involved in developing the Edinburgh trams project have learned the financial lessons of other such projects.”
On 25 October 2007 an Edinburgh City Council press release stated that Edinburgh’s tram network received backing from the majority of City Councillors today when they voted to approve TIE Ltd’s final business case, 46 Councillors voted in favour of the recommendations but all 12 SNP Councillors voted against.
Among Tie’s failures: There were numerous long running disputes between the contractors and Tie Ltd. No proper firm contracts were drawn up with the contractors, nor contract risks defined, no utility survey was conducted (as is normal) to find out what buried services there were and if they would have to be moved. Questions need to be asked of the Lib Dem, Labour and Tory councillors who were appointed on TIE’s board to oversee the day-to-day operation. No SNP representative was on TIE’s board.
At Council level, after construction delays and cost overruns, the SNP moved that the tram scheme be scrapped due to the lack of detail on costs, timescales and risks involved on 30 April 2009, but the other parties did not even support calls for a report on the costs and timescales. Due to escalating costs, the project was reduced to one line and the Granton extension cancelled. Tie Ltd was disbanded in 2011 and Edinburgh Council voted to continue the line between Edinburgh Airport and St Andrew Square. By then, costs rose to an estimated £770 million, leaving the council with a shortfall of more than £200 million. Eventually, and the line between the Airport and York Place was completed and opened to passengers in May 2014. In June 2014 a public inquiry was announced by the Scottish government to scrutinise the delivery of the project.
The SNP can rightly say “We told you so” but that doesn’t suit the constant anti SNP narrative from our main stream media.
For more background: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edinburgh_Trams
Talking-up Scotland 
How could the Scottish Government have kept Transport Scotland involved? The amended motion passed by 81 votes to 47 specifically states that the Edinburgh Trams Project was approved by Parliament after detailed scrutiny and everything in the garden is so rosy that no more Scottish Government money would be needed on the Edinburgh Trams Project, Edinburgh City Council was made responsible for any additional funding.
In addition the attitude of the opposition parties was made crystal clear, the Scottish Government would face a motion of no confidence if it did not permit continuation of the project without interruption.
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John Swinney’s decision to stand down Transport Scotland from the tram project, did not relieve him of his responsibility to ensure that £500m of public money was properly expended on work actually done. During the period of the contractual dispute when virtually no progress was being made on the ground, Transport Scotland paid out around £208m of the grant. Only when the City of Edinburgh Council tried to limit its financial exposure and voted to stop the tramline at Haymarket did Mr Swinney threaten to withhold the remaining paltry £72m of grant money. Lord Hardie is correct that Mr Swinney abdicated his responsibility for the protection of the public purse.
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He fought the tram everyway he could but it was still his fault is an interesting way of looking at it.
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An absolute disgrace by Labour, it was they who ran the council back then. The fact that the enquiry took NINE years adds insult to injury, not to mention the further waste of public money, disgraceful that Lord made a £million, more money taken from the public purse that could have been spent on much more worthwhile causes to say the least. It’s not rocket science to see it was mishandled and mismanaged and no doubt lined the pockets of some incompetent managers and others at the Labour run city of Edinburgh council. There was a lot of disruption to parts of the city, which went on for far too long, some shops were closed down. What a mess it all was.
The media is lying about who was really responsible for the trams, a costly vanity project, allowing Labour, Tory and LibDems off the hook. The writers of those lies do a great disservice to journalists across the globe who are very often persecuted for attempting to get the truth out to the people.
Independence is crucial for Scotland. It’s too expensive and destructive to have the government next door, controlling Scotland’s media.
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Airbrushed Labour’s principle role ?
Indeed a carbon copy of the media airbrushing Labour’s culpability and failures when the politically orchestrated GMB march on equal pay for women in Glasgow took place but not during Labour’s time in power ……but instead only when the SNP took over as the Glasgow council……but surely the women themselves, their family and their friends knew who was REALLY culpable as in who was in power at that time in Glasgow and who fought against their, the women’s, struggle to get equal pay and too where during that time the GMB sided with the Labour council and NOT the women ?
A pattern has developed in Scotland between CERTAIN Unions and the Labour party……a contrived and tactical organised multitude of stushies that the media respond to in a typical predictable fashion, and where the ones who instigated the ‘problem’ are erased or rather airbrushed out via their involvement, and thus the SNP are expected to take all of the flak and are presented as those responsible and too the ones who are supposedly currently failing to address the aftermath and thus are expected to rectify the situation , not of their own making, but via the actions of others….
A classic political manoeuvre between CERTAIN unions and the Labour party…..
Plus of course the media…..
As to the Trams….I am an Edinburgh resident since birth and I am well aware of WHO , via party, was FOR the Trams and WHO, via party , was AGAINST them. I am also aware of, and to be honest weary of , who is being once again dragged into another mess that has been generated by the Labour party (backed, in this case, by other parties too) and thus like many others now see a regurgitating theme that is being played out in Scotland …….all of the players involved in this neverending purely political game being played out are motivated by their goal to destroy the SNP and also to stop independence…..we the people are never considered indeed we are being played for fools…..
I think the careerists in certain political parties, certain Unions and much of the media do more damage within Scotland than those that they accuse…..alas some people within Scotland who are cut from the same cloth, or who are uninformed or those whose apathy stops them from getting more involved will soak up the lies and that is exactly WHO the Labour party, certain Unions and the media are targeting……eventually though this repetitive exercise in deception will be exposed because no one party can always be seen as blameless in the way the Labour party are shielded in Scotland by certain Unions and the media……something has to and WILL eventually give and I hope I am still around to witness it.
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O/T
Media missed this: https://www.thenational.scot/news/23808614.scottish-child-payment-significantly-impacting-child-poverty/
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My understanding, and I may be wrong, was that although much of the alternative funding proposal was to upgrade the A9 some of the funds were to be used to upgrade the A75.
In the end the Tory MPs for Galloway and Upper Nithsdale and Dumfries supported to Tram project rather than the upgrade of the A75 in their own constituencies and it was their votes that decided the future of the SNP government proposals.
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