9am Briefing: Council chief admits public inquiry needed into tram plan

A SENIOR council chief has admitted for the first time that a public inquiry must be held into the way that the city's tram project has been mishandled.

Dave Anderson, director of city development at the council, admitted mistakes had been made early on in the decision-making process and that the construction contract should have been agreed before the design stage was finalised.

He also described Bilfinger Berger, the German construction giant which is locked in a contractual battle with the council's project delivery firm Tie, as an "extremely aggressive commercial company".

• The cousin of a pensioner who lay dead in her flat for five years before being discovered has inherited her 110,000 fortune, it has emerged.

The badly decomposed body of Isabella Purves, 89, was found at her home in Canonmills on July 2 last year.

It has now emerged that Ms Purves' entire 108,392.52 estate has been handed over to her cousin Eleanor Dick, who lives in Clydebank.

• Singer Storm Lee was booted off The X Factor last night after failing to impress with his rendition of Bruce Springsteen's Born to Run.

The Edinburgh-born musician, who now lives in Los Angeles, received the lowest number of viewer votes and was automatically eliminated from the show.

But Storm, 37, vowed to continue with his singing career, saying: "I just want everyone out there who has ever believed in something to never, ever give up because you have not seen the best of me, let me tell you."