The Council vote on whether to extend the tram to Newhaven will take place next month. After much consideration, we have concluded that now is not the time to progress the extension.
There are five critical reasons why:
1. The fact Lord Hardie has yet to report his final recommendations following his independent inquiry into the first tram project. We promised that we would learn the lessons from the first project and we simply can’t do that at the moment. Council officials have admitted that Lord Hardie could make recommendations which we can’t then incorporate if we sign the contracts now.
2. The failure of the SNP/ Labour administration to show how the tram extension will be linked to wider public transport improvements , especially in our area of west Edinburgh. We pushed hard for a dedicated action plan to improve public transport in rural west Edinburgh and the SNP voted it down. If we are to spend £200m on a tram extension to Leith then we need to know how people in this area are going to benefit from improved public transport too.
3. Insufficient information to explain what impact the £20m special dividend from Lothian buses could have on bus routes, fares and other operations. We have no guarantee that the extra money being taken from Lothian won’t result in a ticket increase or cutbacks.
4. The substantial impact the project could have on the Council’s reserves at a time of wider economic uncertainty. It would eat into our reserves leaving us severely exposed if another unexpected event came along.
5. The impact of Brexit which could affect the assumptions on which the business case has been based.
This has not been an easy decision for us to take. However, we need to do what we think is right and given all of the problems above, we just don’t think we can, in good conscience, vote to approve such a major and expensive project.