The long awaited public hearings of the Edinburgh Trams Inquiry have now started with the first two weeks due to hear evidence from various councillors and council officials. The hearings will only be taking place on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays and are expected to take several months to conclude. They will be used to help Lord Hardie come to a conclusion on the project.
So far a lot of the evidence given during these hearings seems to be of the “he said, she said” variety and we won’t be reporting each week on what has been said during the hearings. Major witnesses who have appeared so far include Jenny Dawe (council leader between 2007 and 2012), Lesley Hinds (transport convener) and Donald Anderson (council leader 1999-2006).
The underlying theme in the evidence given seems to of a “shroud of secrecy” around the project with Donald Anderson even going so far as accusing TIE (the arms length company set-up to manage the project) of deliberately misleading the council over the adjudications which were taking place with contractors Bilfinger Berger.
* Full details of the Edinburgh Tram Inquiry can be found on the official website at http://www.edinburghtraminquiry.org.