£10k bill to keep Hearts memorial where it is

The historic clock will be put into storage later this year to allow for tram works at Haymarket junction, but last month it emerged city leaders had hired Cre8architecture to investigate permanently moving the clock to nearby Atholl Crescent.

This prompted a furious response from councillors and Hearts campaigners, and city leaders were forced to pledge the monument will return to Haymarket.

Today it emerged that Cre8architecture had been paid 10,000 for its work on the Atholl Crescent scheme, where a temporary stone will be laid until the C-listed clock is returned to its original location.

In a response to the full council meeting, city transport leader Phil Wheeler said the consultants' report was for work on providing an alternative location for the monument during the tram construction period.

However, a copy of the Cre8architecture report seen by the Evening News states the firm was hired to "investigate the possible permanent relocation of the Hearts Memorial Clock".

When challenged on the report, Councillor Phil Wheeler revealed he had not seen it.

Opposition politicians and campaigners today branded the whole exercise a waste of money.

Cllr Ricky Henderson, said: "How can you have the convener of transport saying he is unaware of a 10,000 report commissioned by his department?

"The report clearly shows what he was saying in full council was untrue and I just think they have made a total pig's ear of this. It is just rank incompetence.

"That is 10,000 of public money down the drain and all of this could have been avoided if they had just spoken to a few key people and established the strength of feeling on this issue."

It is the second time Cllr Wheeler has come under fire over the Hearts memorial issue.

He had insisted a decision had not been taken over the clock, using its two-year stay at Atholl Crescent as a period for discussion on its final resting place, but days later, city leader Jenny Dawe and deputy Steve Cardownie issued a statement saying the clock would definitely return to Haymarket.

A council spokesman said: "With any large and complex construction project, it makes sense to investigate alternative arrangements. While the commitment is to return the memorial to its original location of Haymarket, it is still right to look at the feasibility of other options as a contingency."

The memorial was built by the Gorgie club in 1922 to remember the footballers who had signed up to fight in the First World War.

Although this year's annual memorial service will go ahead as normal, the 86-year-old monument will have to be relocated from Haymarket junction to accommodate the tram works.