The inquiry into what went wrong in the construction of what ended up being the first phase of Edinburgh Trams has taken longer than the construction period of the line between the Airport and York Place and the latest reports have unveiled that with no end in sight the Scottish government have assigned additional funding for Lord Hardie’s inquiry.
Reports of the 2021-22 Scottish Budget have shown that an extra £500,000 of funding to the Inquiry has been set-a-side, following on from the extra £200,000 awarded in 2020-21. The reason given for this increase is that it had originally been expected the report would be released during the last budget year and so this was only part budgeted whereas this time around it’s a full year amount.
A Transport for Scotland spokesperson said: “The increase is because the prior year’s budget was informed by an early estimate the year before, which was based on the inquiry concluding that year. The inquiry has not yet completed and Lord Hardie continues to write the report. The funding covers the cost of this work, including a small support team and relevant advisers.”
There is still no suggestion of when the report may be released but at this rate the whole Trams to Newhaven project may have been finished by the time it is!
Clearly another inquiry needs to be set up now to look at why the inquiry into the original Edinburgh Tram overspend took so long, why it is costing so much and what public transport enhancements could have been made with the funds instead. …and if this inquiry goes over budget or overruns…