As we move ever closer to decision day for the Trams to Newhaven project the latest headlines on the tram extension plan comes from the Conservatives on the City of Edinburgh Council who have urged the \u201cvanity project\u201d to be abandoned and the cash instead diverted to other public services. Needless to say the ruling SNP-Labour coalition don\u2019t quite agree with these ideas!<\/p>\n
The calls for diverting the money to other council projects have been made as part of an “alternative budget” proposed by the Conservatives. They have claimed that with continued cuts to the overall budget from the Scottish Government this extra cash is needed to maintain general council services.<\/p>\n
Although this latest debate isn\u2019t directly about the tram extension, as far as the Conservative Councillors are concerned they can see a big project, costing a large sum of money which would be better spent elsewhere. This is despite previous assurances that the funding for the tram project is not impacting on other council services. One of the aspects of the Final Business Case would be to use future ticket sales revenue and a dividend from Lothian Buses to help fund the trams but the Conservative group wants to see this sum spent elsewhere (although with a shorter tram route the future ticket revenue would not be as high as shown in the FBC).<\/p>\n
Cllr Iain White, group leader of the Conservatives on the Council, said: \u201cWith the council facing financial crisis due to the SNP Government\u2019s budget cuts, the SNP and Labour \u2028councillors have fallen into a tail-spin of disagreement, delaying their budget announcement while they continue to fight within their groups and between their parties over where the axe should fall. Against that background, we Conservatives have drawn up plans that show how our city could be much better run by concentrating on delivering better core services and cutting out waste. Our budget would limit the council tax increase to two per cent to give a break to hard-working families in the city. It would also make a badly-needed additional fund of \u00a390m available to improve public transport while accelerating the school building programme, all by rejecting the costly tram extension to Newhaven. This would deliver better services for residents with new schools not trams, improved care services, staff resource redirected to front-line services and more funding to repair our crumbling roads and pavements. Edinburgh deserves so much better than this minority coalition are giving it. They have no strategic plan other than the hugely expensive trams vanity project which they use in an attempt to disguise their failings. If they would rather squabble about minor cuts that\u2019s fine but we want to show how to deliver for our citizens \u2013 the people that matter.\u201d<\/p>\n
Obviously the coalition in charge of the Council disagree with these comments. Cllr Adam McVey, Leader of the Council, said: \u201cThe people of Edinburgh will see through the Tory\u2019s cynical attempt to spin a fake windfall from their opposition to public transport investment. We will only deliver the extension if it can be done without putting any additional pressure on council budgets by using tram fares and an additional Lothian buses dividend to repay the construction costs.\u201d<\/p>\n
The actual decision on whether to proceed with the tram extension will follow in mid-March, and isn’t directly connected to the new general budget which was set earlier this week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
As we move ever closer to decision day for the Trams to Newhaven project the latest headlines on the tram extension plan comes from the Conservatives on the City of Edinburgh Council who have urged the \u201cvanity project\u201d to be … Continue reading