Pope visit 'will derail' tram D-day

Published on Wednesday 4 August 2010 15:31

A CRUNCH meeting on Edinburgh's tram project scheduled to happen on the same day as the Pope's visit will not be moved to an alternative day, despite fears that a late-night meeting could affect the amount of scrutiny any decision gets.

Opposition councillors are not happy that the full council meeting on September 16 has been put back from 10am to 2pm, because an earlier start would clash with the visit of Benedict XVI to Edinburgh.

They say that the meeting - where a decision is to be made on the way forward for the troubled tram project - should instead be held a day earlier.

They fear that the meeting may drag long into the evening, impacting on the councillors' decision-making ability.

The claims have been dismissed by city leaders, who say that the later start time should compensate for councillors having to stay in the City Chambers for later than usual.

Conservative councillor Joanna Mowat said: "Starting at two o'clock will mean that we would need to be taking decisions late at night and that would not be good for scrutiny.

"I do have a suspicion that, since trams is that day, one of the reasons it won't be moved to the day before is that there won't be proper scrutiny because eyes will be elsewhere.

"While I appreciate the significance of the Pope's visit, it is more important in the long-term for this city that the right decision is made on trams."

The debate over the full council meeting's clash with the Pope's visit comes a day after it emerged that the visit will cost the city up to 400,000. Discussions are taking place with Holyrood and Westminster on recouping these costs.

Cllr Andrew Burns, leader of the council's Labour group, said he supports having the meeting that day, but not the move to 2pm.

He said: "When we were consulted as group leaders on a move to Wednesday our response was that it should stay on Thursday, September 16 as there could be problems if it was moved.

"We were not consulted on a move to 2pm and starting then does raise issues about the potential length of business."

As all councillors have to attend full council, the meeting cannot be moved to a day when there is another council committee meeting, which makes a change of date more difficult.

Council leader Jenny Dawe said: "Given the later start time, I see no reason why the discussion, scrutiny and decision-making should suffer simply because the meeting might run into the evening."