SNP vows to take ‘hands on’ approach to get trams back on track

Nationalist councillors say they will now do all they can to further protect the public purse and keep a lid on further cost increases after agreeing to join a new working group of senior officials and councillors who will oversee the project.

Group leader Steve Cardownie said the move was a “logical extension” of the group’s decision to opt to back a tram line to St Andrew Square, rather than cancel the whole project because of the estimated £161 million cost to the council.

The move means senior SNP councillors will now have full responsibility for the fate of the tram project, which they have previously distanced themselves from, even though the party runs the council in coalition with the Liberal Democrats.

Councillors will have much more control over the scheme in future under a new set-up which will also see private consultants Turner & Townsend brought in to project manage, instead of the “arms-length” council firm Tie.

Transport Scotland, the Scottish Government’s agency, will also be asked to take part in a new “project board” which will see the council take over the running of the tram scheme from its failed company.

Council leader Jenny Dawe said the agency had been “very helpful” while the council had been involved in mediation talks with the German-led construction consortium, but said she was unsure if it would be wise for Transport Scotland to take full control of the project from the council.

Council chief executive Sue Bruce, who has effectively been in charge of the tram project since starting her role in January, was given approval on Friday to strike a new deal with a consortium previously awarded a contract to build a tram line to the city’s waterfront. Although she has been asked to proceed “on an unconditional basis as to funding”, a ceiling of £776m has been capped on the council’s contribution.

The council’s SNP group announced it would be backing the tram project last week, within hours of finance secretary John Swinney demanding a rethink from councillors after Labour and Tory councillors had voted through cutting the tram line short even further, at Haymarket. Labour also switched its position at a special council meeting last week, backing Ms Bruce’s advice of an initial line to St Andrew Square.

Special briefings have had to be set up for councillors to update them on talks with the consortium and all parties were involved in face-to-face talks for the first time with the contractors last week, hours after Mr Swinney’s crucial intervention.

A new report for councillors last week said group leaders and their transport spokespeople would be able to take part in the new working group.

Councillor Cardownie said: “Although we’ve not officially agreed to join this group, it would be a logical extension of the decision we took last week.

“We now want to participate fully and take a more hands-on approach to the project. We will get the bit between our teeth and do our best to further protect the public purse.

“It would have been completely contradictory for us to have anything to do with the administration of the project in the past because we had distanced ourselves from it, but we voted for taking the tram to St Andrew Square because we felt it was the best option in front of us. We have to make the best of it now.”

Ms Dawe said: “We want to have all-party involvement with the group leaders and their transport spokespeople on this working group and I’m sure the SNP will want to be involved in that of the back of the decision they took last week, and despite of their views in the past.

“The council is going to have much more scrutiny of the project in future under the new management arrangements as it was clear that the previous set-up wasn’t working.”