THE proposed extension to Edinburgh’s tramline at a cost of £162 million will become an election issue in 2017 after all.
Next week Edinburgh Council will be asked to approve the start of 18 months of preparation work at a cost of £3.25 million, but councillors will not have to make the final decision on building the extension to Newhaven until the summer of 2017. Local authority elections will take place in May of that year.
One council source told The National: “That makes it certain that all the parties will have to say whether or not they will approve the extension – and we’ll know a lot more about it by then, too.”
The current public inquiry into the massive overspend on the original trams project should be completed by early 2017, which could also affect the public’s view of candidates and parties.
Only the Conservative group has outrightly opposed the extension after supporting the original project. But, as The National revealed, the SNP group forced the delay on the final-extension decision by robustly questioning the business case over the last fortnight.
Given that the ruling Labour-SNP Capital Coalition supports the new recommendations, approval will be given to the £3.25 million “first stage” preparatory work, while a further £1.75m has also been set aside to secure up to 67 plots of land along the route of the extension. The £5m cost will be met from dividends already accrued from the council’s ownership of 91 per cent of Lothian Buses. A further £20m extraordinary dividend from Lothian Buses would be used to part-fund the building of the extension.
The council wrote formally to Lothian Buses to request details of any impact an extraordinary dividend would make on the company. Lothian Buses said the additional dividend request will be “factored in the financial modelling”.
However, the letter from Lothian Buses’ chairman and general manager Jim McFarlane added: “The company respects the right of the council as majority shareholder to make this extraordinary dividend request.
“Equally the council will acknowledge that the company can only make annual or extraordinary dividend payments if it has the strength to do so having first taken into account the ongoing cash flow requirements of the business.”
A new report to the council states that the first stage of project development would run until summer 2017 and would involve the establishment of a project team, the development of a financing solution and stakeholder engagement, amongst other activities.
It would also bring forward work initially covered in the second phase, including initial work on invitation to tender and the start of a pre-qualification process for bidders.
The council stated: “At the conclusion of stage one, project financials would be further refined to take into account any revision in assumptions in areas such as patronage and capital costs, as well as Government guidance on borrowing.
“At this point, a report will be brought back to council recommending a way forward.”
The leadership of the tram project and the ongoing Leith Programme of environmental improvements will be merged in order to incorporate the requirements of the extension.
Council and Labour group leader, Andrew Burns, said: “I am satisfied that the latest recommendations offer a viable way forward for the project, which we are confident is set to offer a range of benefits for the city.”
SNP group leader and depute council leader, Sandy Howat, said: “We are satisfied that further development of the outline business case will provide sufficient information to make a fair and informed decision on when to extend the tram line. It is essential we bear the best interests of Edinburgh’s residents in mind.”
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here