EDINBURGH’S tram project lurched along rudderless and a senior councillor was “implored” not to raise concerns in public about the botched development, an inquiry has heard.
Former deputy council leader and SNP group chief Steve Cardownie told the Edinburgh Tram Inquiry before Lord Hardie he was put under pressure by coalition partners the Lib Dems and later Labour not to raise public concerns over the trams while disputes were ongoing, saying he was “implored” to show a united front.
Above: Former deputy council leader Steve Cardownie at the inquiry. Picture by Michael Boyd.
Edinburgh Trams: Case for £165m Newhaven extension backed by councillors
He said "spin" was put on the truth from Tie - Edinburgh City Council's arms-length firm set up to deliver the project - that disputes were being “won” when they were only being settled for a reduced agreement on the original contract bargaining price.
He said in the earlier stages of the tram fiasco "Tie had to report more often that would have been expected because of the delays, the disputes and the budget, and in fact the design of the tram".
Edinburgh Trams: Case for £165m Newhaven extension backed by councillors
He said: "I don’t think councillors were aware of exactly what these disputes meant in terms of money.
"There was a whole number of disputes that we were told we were winning but there was a kind of spin put on how do you determine winning.
Edinburgh Trams: Case for £165m Newhaven extension backed by councillors
He continued: "So councillors I think were more interested at that time in the political fall-out with the public than they were about the money because it had not breached the budget by that time and we were still told that (there was) a contingency fund - we were told that any matters could be dealt with through the contingency fund."
The former Labour and then SNP councillor who stepped down at the last election also said: "We were implored by our partners in the administration to put up a united front when it came to the disputes, that the consortium (of contractors) would attempt to use any weakness or division."
Edinburgh Trams: Case for £165m Newhaven extension backed by councillors
Lord Hardie, pictured above, asked Mr Cardownie when "implored by your partners in the administration to put up a united front when it came to the question of disputes, can I just clarify which partners are you talking about, because you were in coalition with the Liberal Democrats and in coalition with Labour?"
Mr Cardownie said: “Well both actually but originally the Liberal Democrats.
Edinburgh Trams: Case for £165m Newhaven extension backed by councillors
“We were implored by, in particular I remember, Gordon Mackenzie, councillor Mackenzie, speaking to me on several occasions saying ‘we’ve got this information but please don’t take it any further’ we’ve got to show that we are united.
"If Bilfinger Berger (a contractor) think that we are weak in any place they might not concede their case and they might continue to get more money out of these disputes."
Edinburgh Trams: Case for £165m Newhaven extension backed by councillors
Former Tie chief executive Michael Howell told week four of the public hearings stage of the inquiry that he had clashed with Neil Renilson, then chief executive of Lothian Buses.
Mr Howell said: “I couldn’t imagine anything more important than having a close and friendly and personal and trusting relationship with the chief executive of Lothian Buses – who was Neil Renilson at the time – and that proved I’m sad to say impossible.
Edinburgh Trams: Case for £165m Newhaven extension backed by councillors
“It was clear very early on that for whatever reason Neil wanted to be in charge of everything to do with the tram even though he wasn’t a civil engineer and he didn’t really know anything about building a tram system.
"And it was something that created a lot of energy and tension and the Tie board, and me and my colleagues, because of various filibusters from the director of Lothian Buses."
Edinburgh Trams: Case for £165m Newhaven extension backed by councillors
He added that "one of the issues that preoccupied Neil Renilson was that a very substantial proportion" of his fares would be moving across to the tram.
Asked by Jonathan Lake, inquiry senior counsel, that while there was "the Tram project board (a Tie sub-committee) and they’ve got the Tie board and they’ve got the TEL board, who was in charge of the project?", Mr Howell said: "That’s a very good question and I would at the time would have liked to have asked that particularly of Tom Aitchison (then council chief executive) because I think he should have helped us to figure it out."
Edinburgh Trams: Case for £165m Newhaven extension backed by councillors
Mr Lake asked: "To put it mildly, even in the role that you held within Tie, it's not clear to you who was in charge of the project?"
Mr Howell answered: "At that moment it wasn’t ... "
Mr Howell left Tie after four years in 2006.
The inquiry continues.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel