Council plans to take tram rebels to court

Published on Wednesday 22 October 2008 02:17

DOZENS of building owners on Edinburgh's tram route face legal action after refusing to agree to overhead wires being attached to their properties.

The city council plans to take 23 people to the sheriff court to avoid cluttering streets with poles to support the power cables.

Officials said using poles in narrow streets and the city centre's World Heritage Site "might be perceived as visually intrusive".

However, the threatened action has angered some owners, who said their mortgage lender had refused to agree to the fixings.

They also fear the future sale of their home could be affected, and claimed the notification process was mishandled and had to be repeated.

The council has gained approval from 369 property owners along the planned Edinburgh Airport-Newhaven tram line for a total of 99 fixings.

However, 23 fixings have not been approved, because the 23 affected owners have written to refuse their consent.

Councillors will be recommended next week to take these cases to court to have them resolved, because negotiations have failed to produce agreement. Papers could be lodged with the court within days.

Preparation of the council's legal case is expected to cost 50,000.

The council hopes to avoid using poles to support the overhead wires between Haymarket and York Place in the city centre, and between the dock gates in Constitution Street in Leith and the foot of Leith Walk.

It said: "There are situations where avoiding the use of a pole is critical, because of space constraints within a narrow street or complex road junction."

Officials said that, in the Leith section, "the narrow street imposes space constraints and the conservation area status requires care to be taken with visual impacts".

In the city centre, "conservation area and World Heritage Site status require particular care to be taken to avoid introducing poles into key views and generally avoiding visual and physical clutter."

Justin Bird, who has refused consent for fixings to his second-floor flat in Constitution Street, said: "I'm quite annoyed, given they have not served the documents to us correctly.

"We have not been able to get the consent of our mortgage lender. In addition, solicitors have told us they would charge extra fees for transferring consent to a future owner of the flat."

Gregor Buick, an associate with Murray Beith Murray, an Edinburgh law firm, said the notification papers had not advised owners to seek legal advice, or warned them they would need the consent of mortgage lenders.

He said they had also not stated that having the brackets might increase buildings insurance premiums.

A spokesman for TIE, the council's tram firm, said: "We are following due legal process and cannot comment on individual cases."