Letter: Don't destroy bus services to fund trams

Last October, a deputation from the Joint Trade Union Committee of Lothian Buses addressed a full meeting of the council, which was considering a refreshed business case for the future of the tram project.

We urged councillors then to support Lothian Buses, to stop the Tie merger, to enshrine its publicly-owned status, protecting its profits, workers and passenger services; not to plunder its assets to offset the losses of the trams fiasco.

Today, as councillors meet to vote on the future of the trams, we find ourselves having to make the same appeal again.

Although the report going to the council meeting doesn't spell it out, its recommendations are effectively asking councillors to plunder Lothian Buses and to vote for a tram line running from Edinburgh Airport to St Andrew Square at a cost of more than 770 million to the local taxpayer.

This "option" is "subject to funding". With nearly the entire project budget already spent but with only a quarter of the work completed, where could the extra monies needed possibly come from?

The Scottish Government has made it very clear that there won't be a penny more than the 500m already allocated.

Paragraph 3.52 of the report gives the game away: "The additional increase in project cost will require the council to secure funding … from surpluses in the business plan."

We know what this means and councillors know what it means too. It means borrowing money against Lothian Buses' income and then requiring Lothian Buses to carry the repayment costs.

Decisions will be taken today without the full knowledge of the facts, not least without any consultation between councillors and the workforce at Lothian Buses. This is totally unacceptable and cannot continue.

Councillors are under huge pressure to deal with this project, which has been a catastrophic waste of public money and, largely, a mess of their own making.

They can begin to help themselves today by listening to us, and by protecting Edinburgh's only world-class transport provider, Lothian Buses, from the down-pull of this white elephant.

Rab Fraser

On behalf of the Lothian Buses Joint Trade Union Committee

Logie Mill

Beaverbank Business Park

Edinburgh

While reading your article regarding the cancelling of the trams I couldn't help thinking of some of the reasoning behind the decisions to start the project in the first place.

Why didn't they have a referendum before starting this debacle? Didn't we learn from previous national disgraces such as the parliament building?

They say the extra costs are being incurred due to tunnelling and moving cables. Why was this overlooked?

It seems the biggest single undertaking to date is to install garaging and depot facilities at Gogar roundabout.

I can't honestly think of a worse place to have been chosen for this.Other options should have been looked at without the councillors getting their fingers in the financial pie.

They should have had a referendum to decide on sacking all concerned with this disaster.

Steve Kilpatrick

Gogarloch

Edinburgh

What is the point of holding a referendum on Edinburgh trams (your report, 29 June) without voters being given the real facts?

500 million has already been spent. Where would the additional 300m go when only now we are learning how badly our money has been spent to date, including the 138,000 salary for a PR employee.

Never an enthusiast for trams, and admirably served by Lothian Buses, it would be a choice between rock and hard place in a referendum for me and, I suspect, many other voters.

Jim Craigen

Downie Grove

Edinburgh