Letters: Heads should roll for those who brought tram turmoil

Why does the council think another few years of disruption from the tram project will only cost an extra £200 million when the contractors haven't even been able to stick with the budget so far?

It's nave at best for them to think the remaining work will cost only that.

Before this fiasco started, all the contractors should have had the stipulation written into contracts that if the project ran late, overspending of the budget, etc, they would incur penalties, and that's been the council's fundamental mistake.

The people who have decided all this, without the support of the Edinburgh taxpayers, should be held to account. There's possibly another three years of work to do, and tram tracks which have already been laid are having to be redone because the standard of work was so poor.

Is this another of council leader Jenny Dawe's pie-in-the-sky thoughts of it only being a "small glitch"? Please wake up and smell the coffee. She may be happy to continue on a possible road to bankrupting this city, but remember her words.

She said: "Working with the people of Edinburgh to address the stark economic situation we face, will help us make better decisions. The administration will listen and learn throughout the process to make sure that we get a clear idea of public views to help us identify the right council priorities at this time."

It can hardly be said she has any idea at all of what the people think, and as for learning anything, that's a laugh. Heads should roll for this total fiasco and those behind the decisions should resign, starting at the top with the council leader.

Jo Wright, Edinburgh

Politicians would have passed buck

IF a referendum had been held for the trams project, no matter what way the vote went, the politicians would have transferred the blame on to the voters. The politicians got themselves into this mess, let them get themselves out of it.

It's going to cost millions, and maybe our bus company.

Tom Loughray, Muirhouse Gardens, Edinburgh

Policy designed to divide Britons

BRIAN Adcock's excellent cartoon (News, June 30) with two Scottish students giving their professor (Mike Russell) apples while an English student has to give him a bag of gold shows the idiocy of the SNP's higher education policy.

To catch the full absurdity of the policy, just substitute a European flag for the saltire on the second Scottish student. Think of it, a student from Berlin, Bergen or Bilbao need pay no fees, while a British student from Berwick-upon-Tweed must hand over a small fortune.

To add insult to injury this policy is entirely intentional and is designed to create bad feeling in the rest of the UK and to estrange young Scots from their fellow Britons.

The solution is for our real parliament in Westminster to enact the principle that no parliament, assembly or public body in the UK should treat British residents and British citizens less favourably than it does foreigners.

Otto Inglis, Inveralmond Grove, Cramond, Edinburgh

Track record is not impressive

I WAS not surprised to see Councillor David Beckett's letter (News, June 24) trying frantically to distance his party from its track record of running the city over the last five years.

I imagine he must have been sorely tempted to try to distance the SNP from more than just the tram project though!

He is right to be concerned about this election being a chance for the people of Edinburgh to vote on the Lib Dem/SNP track record of running the city over the last four years. No surprise that there is still no word of candidates being selected to represent them!

To Cllr Beckett, and the Greens, who bizarrely want the by election delayed until September, I say bring it on, the earlier the better, and we can get on with passing judgement on how good, bad, or indifferent a job Jenny Dawe and Steve Cardownie are doing in running the city.

Iain McGill, City Centre Conservative candidate