'No blank cheque' for trams pledge as city reveals £215m spent

Published on Wednesday 11 March 2009 01:15

ABOUT £215 million has been spent on Edinburgh's troubled tram scheme, the city council revealed last night.

However, the city's transport leader told a public meeting there would be "no blank cheque", amid fears thatthe project is running more than a year over schedule and tens of millions of pounds over budget.

Senior councillors also raised the prospect of the city council having to refund tens of millions of pounds to the Scottish Government if the scheme was cancelled.

Councillor Phil Wheeler, the city's transport leader, also issued a public apology over the level of disruption that the tram scheme has brought and the poor levels of communication with businesses.

The figure of 215 million emerged at a public meeting in Leith last night, when traders voiced anger about the lack of progress on the scheme and claimed a string of promises had been broken by the council and its tram firm, Tie.

The council has secured 500 million from the Scottish Government for the trams scheme, which was due to see the first tracks laid in Leith Walk in January.

However, a festive embargo demanded by traders was blamed for that deadline slipping, and plans to lay the first tracks in Princes Street by next month have been thrown into disarray by a dispute with the main contractor for the infrastructure project.

Mr Wheeler insisted that there was no question of the tram project becoming "Holyrood on wheels", as many critics of the project have claimed.

He said: "There is not a bottomless point, and there will be no blank cheque. The government has agreed to provide 500 million, the council has agreed to find 45 million, and that is it."

Mr Wheeler apologised and pledged "lessons have been learned" over the way businesses had been dealt with. He insisted measures had been taken to keep retailers more informed about the tram works.

It emerged in October that 177 million had been spent on the project.

Meanwhile, The Scotsman has learned that a new showdown is looming in the dispute between Tie and Edinburgh's tram developers and its construction firm.

Preparatory work in Princes Street has continued since the row erupted more than two weeks ago, but the crunch is expected to come with excavations scheduled to start by Monday.

Bilfinger Berger is reported to have demanded up to an extra 80 million and several months more time to complete the building of the 512 million airport-Newhaven tram line by the middle of 2011.

The German firm, which leads a consortium responsible for the 240 million construction contract, has blamed delays to separate work to move underground pipes and cables.

Bilfinger Berger has gone ahead with planned preliminary work in Princes Street, which is now into its third week. It has remained closed to traffic since the work started and is due to remain shut until November.

Talks continued yesterday between the two sides in an effort to break the deadlock, but insufficient progress is believed to have been made so far to enable work to start in earnest.