All pain no gain for companies if tram route is cut short

Published on Saturday 19 June 2010 11:17

BUSINESSES and residents today hit out after it emerged they might be left off the city's tram route despite suffering years of disruption.

A new report released yesterday revealed council bosses are considering "incremental delivery" of the project, with the line initially opening from the airport to Haymarket or York Place or the foot of Leith Walk.

Today it was reported the initial phase of the scheme linking the airport to Haymarket could be completed by 2011.

Critics said small business had "endured chaos for nothing", but TIE said phasing the route in the report was still just a proposal.

Graham Chapman, chairman of Leith Harbour and Newhaven community council, said people would be "very, very annoyed" if the route was cut short.

"It would be a joke if it was to finish before it got to Leith. It has got to come down here," he said.

"We have put up with a lot, especially in Leith Walk. I hate to think what people would feel if all that was for nothing."

Michael Dixon, chair of the Federation of Small Businesses in Edinburgh, said it had feared for some time that the council might cut back on the line.

He said: "We would be extremely concerned for people whose businesses are on the part of the route that has suffered the initial works but for whom the line might never arrive."

Roland Reid, secretary of Leith Central community council, said there should be a full consultation before any decision to cut the route short.

SNP Lothians MSP Shirley-Anne Somerville called on pro-tram councillors to "apologise to the people of Edinburgh" for going ahead with the project.

She said: "The report leaves wide open the prospect that in the short term we'll get a tram line running only from the airport to Haymarket.

"Does that mean people in Leith and elsewhere have endured chaos for nothing?

"Every Lib Dem, Labour, Conservative and Green councillor and MSP who foisted the trams on the city should apologise for the horrendous mistake."

But Green MSP Robin Harper hit back. He said: "It is disgraceful hypocrisy for Shirley-Anne Somerville to blame other parties for the maladministration of the trams project.

"Her SNP council colleagues chose to go into local government and to deliver the trams with the Lib Dems. Sadly, over the last three years all they have delivered is delay, disruption and disputes. SNP councillors have proved themselves unfit to run a burger van, let alone a local authority."