Top tram boss quits project

Published on 29/07/2011 20:29

THE man who has led the city's embattled tram project since it first began has dramatically quit ahead of a major shake-up of the scheme.

&#149 Steven Bell

Steven Bell, who was paid 158,875 as the project director, is among those taking redundancy from beleaguered tram firm TIE.

His departure signals the end of TIE's old guard, with the council set to forge a closer relationship with contractor Bilfinger Berger, effectively making the tram firm surplus to requirements.

Mr Bell, who joined TIE in 2006 as engineering and procurement director, became project director in January 2008 and was the company's highest-paid employee.

Council bosses are set to hand over control of the project to directors working for Bilfinger and its contractors.

One source said: "The contractor is taking on much more responsibility for delivery and we don't need the project management on the TIE side.

"(Mr Bell] has a lot of experience of the project, but not all of that is good experience."

A chartered civil engineer with experience in the rail and infrastructure sectors, Mr Bell kept a low public profile, but is credited along with former chief executive Richard Jeffrey with pursuing an aggressive stance with Bilfinger Berger, which saw the two sides go to a series of adjudications.

That approach is now widely regarded as a failure, with the relationship with the contractor changing since mediation talks.

A spokesman for the project said: "Following the announcement of a recent voluntary redundancy process, individuals will be leaving the organisation over the next few weeks. The process has come about as the plans develop for greater project partnering between the council and the consortium."