Dawe ready to wield axe on flagship plans

In an outspoken interview, marking the day she officially becomes council leader, the Liberal Democrat hit out at radical plans to overhaul Haymarket Station and warned she had major concerns about Edinburgh Zoo's expansion plans.

A high-speed rail link between Edinburgh and Glasgow, trumpeted by her Labour predecessor, was branded "pie in the sky".

And she questioned the need for more collaboration between the two cities - in the wake of the appointment of a 55,000-a-year director to work on joint projections.

The first plans to come under attack were those drawn up by council officials for revamping Haymarket Station, which include proposals to bulldoze the existing station and Ryries Bar, both listed buildings.

"I wasn't particularly happy that the first I knew of these plans for Haymarket was when I saw them in the Evening News last week," she said.

"As a resident of the city, I can't see the justification in demolishing buildings of high quality. Just because these are old buildings, it does not mean that they should be knocked down.

"I just don't understand the trend for putting up glass boxes these days. In 30 years' time I think they will be seen in the same way as eyesores like the Appleton and David Hume Towers at Edinburgh University.

"The Scottish Widows offices near the Royal Commonwealth Pool are an example of new offices that have dated very quickly."

Councillor Dawe said she was in "a very tricky position" when it comes to the future of the zoo, as she sits on its board, but she admitted to huge unease over its expansion plans.

The zoo hopes to sell some of its land for housing and then expand on to part of a council-owned nature reserve elsewhere on Corstorphine Hill.

"The council has already agreed to re-zone land to the west of the zoo for housing," said the new council leader.

"However, that does not mean that planning permission is guaranteed, and it may be that the new planning committee will take a different view and not agree development there is appropriate.

"I know there is already huge opposition to the possibility of housing being created on that site, but it's almost inevitable there will be even more opposition to any development to the east of the zoo at the nature reserve.

"I think it would be very difficult to defend anything which affects the current nature reserve."

Cllr Dawe is also set to order a review of the work of Waterfront Edinburgh - the joint venture firm set up by the council to help transform a huge swathe of the Granton foreshore - amid fears the development has not progressed fast enough and has failed to deliver enough family housing.

She said: "There have been concerns expressed by local people about what has been happening with the developer and the way the joint venture company has consulted with people.

"I had a tour of the development around a year ago and was struck by how small many of the homes were. They seemed all right for a single person who wasn't interested in cooking or spending time at home, because of the lack of space. We need to ensure there is more family housing created in areas like that."

Cllr Dawe is less than pleased at inheriting another pet project of the Labour administration - the drive to work more closely with Glasgow to attract major events, lobby for improved transport links and collaborate on marketing initiatives. She said: "I remain to be convinced about the worth of the project. On the face of it Glasgow would appear to have benefited more in terms of being able to attract new inward investment over the last couple of years.

"Edinburgh and Glasgow were both doing perfectly well before this project was set up. I'd like to know how Edinburgh has benefited from it and what evidence there is that we are not able to compete with our rivals without the help of Glasgow."

Plans to cut the journey time between Edinburgh and Glasgow were unveiled in a fanfare of publicity just before the election by the firm UK Ultraspeed, which says it can deliver high-speed trains travelling up to 311 mph between Scotland's two main cities. The idea was enthusiastically embraced by the outgoing Labour council leader Ewan Aitken.

But Cllr Dawe said: "Frankly, I have never heard of anything so nonsensical. The whole project seems completely unrealistic and we should be concentrating on reducing the journey times on the existing services rather than talking up a project like this."

However, rail firms are to be taken to task by the new council leader over the failure to have the Edinburgh-Glasgow shuttle stop at Edinburgh Park station.

She said: "It's utterly ridiculous that trains between the two cities go right past Edinburgh Park and one of the first things I'm going to do is try to get answers on why this is still happening so long after the station opened. I'd also like to see an extension of the late-night services between Edinburgh and Glasgow, particularly during the Edinburgh Festival, but it's also important that we look at ensuring that the bus services in Edinburgh run a bit later into the night."

Key transport aims include rolling out a major expansion of the number of electronic bus signs, particularly outside the city centre, providing more facilities for cyclists and delivering the city's first underground car parks.

Major priorities for the new council include meeting the cost of the "huge" number of outstanding equal pay claims the local authority is still faced with and re-opening the thorny issue of which primary schools should be closed down.

On the latter issue, Cllr Dawe admitted "tough decisions" would have to be taken by the new council because of falling school rolls, but said everything possible would be done to look at alternatives to closures.

The new council is to give "top priority" to reviving plans for a refurbishment of the King's Theatre, while Cllr Dawe expressed support for the introduction of some form of festival levy, or bed tax, which visitors to Edinburgh would pay to help ease the burden on taxpayers from the staging of major events in the city.

She said: "It's well documented how much the festivals generate for the city, but what many people don't realise is the council doesn't see the benefit of this. It's only fair that the private sector puts something back in."

One possible area of contention within the coalition, and a potential problem for the Liberal Democrat council, is the continued future of the tram and Edinburgh Airport Rail Link (EARL) projects, both of which are supported by the Lib Dems and opposed by the SNP.

This was identified early on in coalition talks, however, and it was agreed that on those issues the SNP could continue to oppose the project.

A bigger problem may be the threat of the SNP-led Scottish Executive refusing vital funding for the schemes, but Cllr Dawe said she would continue to fight for the tram project as she believed it was vital not just to the future of Edinburgh but the whole of Scotland.

"We specifically excluded the trams from our coalition deal so that the SNP can vote however they choose on those issues," she said. "There has been a lot of concern that Alex Salmond may pull the plug on this, however, and I have already written to him requesting a meeting about this.

"I really do feel it is that important, and if it were to be stopped it would mean a waste of a great deal of public money. I think there is a great desire among people in Edinburgh to have trams and it would be a disaster if the project were shelved.

"The Edinburgh Airport Rail Link is something that I think is less important - it's a project I still support, but if we were offered a straight choice between the two I would opt for the trams."