Trams given £30m despite dispute with contractors

TRANSPORT bosses have approved a further £30 million worth of spending on Edinburgh's troubled tram project in the last five months, despite an ongoing row with contractors.

• TIE said some of the money went towards work at Haymarket.

New figures released under Freedom of Information laws show that Transport Scotland has handed over an average of 6m a month since April, even though most of the work in the city centre has stalled.

The figures are likely to raise fresh concerns about the Scottish Government's willingness to continue financing a project which could yet end up in court.

Transport Scotland has paid a total of 341m of its 500m contribution to the scheme, while Edinburgh City Council has contributed a further 31m.

Tram firm TIE said the money was being spent on off-road sections of the 11.5-mile route, including work on the Haymarket viaduct, Gogar depot and at the A8 underpass.

Earlier this month, former Labour minister and Edinburgh North and Leith MSP Malcolm Chisholm tabled a question in the Scottish Parliament "to ask the Scottish Government what issues it and Transport Scotland raised with the City of Edinburgh Council before handing over each instalment of funding for the Edinburgh tram project".

Today he said: "We need to do everything possible to protect the public purse and we need very close monitoring of all expenditure by the Scottish Government.

"Clearly, they do need to pay out money where appropriate, but the Scottish Government have a role to play in monitoring expenditure and it's very odd for Transport Scotland just to do whatever TIE says."

But a spokesman for TIE said it was always expected that there would be high costs associated with infrastructure at the start of the project.

He said: "It's important that we are clear about where we are currently regarding the budget for the project against the programme.

"In fact, we are currently under spent in budget terms for what we had anticipated this financial year. The figure spent this year should in theory be higher but this has obviously been slowed by the speed of progress.

"It was always expected that there would be high infrastructure costs upfront - and this was planned for. These include the cost for the viaducts, the bridges, the purchase of the land for construction and the purchase of vehicles. These items were scheduled to be built first and this is where the heavy spend is."

A spokeswoman for Transport Scotland said it was up to TIE and the council to decide how money was spent.

She said: "We are abiding by the financial agreement put in place. Financial responsibility (for the project) is a matter for the council and TIE."

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