Edinburgh council leader Cammy Day, about the council's response to the Tram Inquiry.

Edinburgh Evening News

Transcript

00:00 So I absolutely accept the final cost of Tammins way over what we had anticipated many, many years

00:05 ago. We've waited for around nine years for this report at a huge cost. What we've delivered is

00:10 the biggest infrastructure project in the UK, which is hugely successful across the city. So

00:16 whilst I absolutely regret the additional cost that that's brought to the city, I absolutely

00:20 regret the inconvenience and disturbance that has caused for many businesses and residents across

00:24 the city. I still think it's the right thing to do to help grow the city, to extend our active

00:30 travel and support these measures and contribute to a net zero city transport mode as well. We're

00:36 hoping these measures bring more and more people from cars into our tram and bus network. But yeah,

00:42 I regret the additional costs that were incurred during this process over a lengthy period.

00:47 I think the Hardie report quite clearly identifies the issues raised and the report going to council

00:52 entirely accepts the 24 recommendations in Hardie's inquiry and we will implement these going forward

00:59 over the next few months. And you're confident that if the council decides to go ahead with

01:04 further tram extensions that the project, these projects would be able to be run appropriately

01:10 and without the same kind of problems? Again whilst I say we absolutely accept the recommendations

01:15 in all Hardie's inquiry on the first part of the line, the second part of the trams to New Haven

01:19 from York Place have been delivered by in-house and that by an in-house team delivered by council

01:25 staff, working with the contractors. There have been monthly if not more meetings with councillors

01:30 and contractors to make sure we have robust oversight of what's been happening as we've

01:34 went through the tram to New Haven. We've absolutely learned about new governance processes in terms of

01:39 the tram to New Haven part. So the huge successes we've got for an extended part of the tram which

01:44 was on time and on budget. We will take that learning to extend the tram into the south of the

01:50 city to line 1B which is the loop between New Haven and Roseburn and even start discussions now

01:56 about how we might look to get the tram out to the west of the city. I think the tram has been hugely

02:01 successful and it was the right decision to do and yeah we absolutely regret the cost that's

02:06 been incurred to the city. And the tram inquiry report did criticise the council and found that

02:13 the council officials had misled the council. What's happening about that?

02:17 So I suppose back then the tram was dealt with through an alley, it was an external part of the

02:25 council for different reasons and I think we've learned that that model doesn't work. The

02:29 information flow and communication between elected members and officers of both of the council and of

02:35 Tye back then just was unacceptable and as Lord Hardie identified in his report that some

02:41 information was not put in front of councillors and in fact some people were misled. So I think

02:45 that's a real learning for us. I think as I touched on earlier the new governance we put in place to

02:51 deal with the tram to New Haven has dealt with the information flow, there's been robust information

02:57 both openly public and some private information that we've asked for and requested and received

03:03 through the last year or two, the process of getting the tram to New Haven. So I think we've

03:08 absolutely learned from the particular new governance arrangements and accountability

03:13 from officers to elected members. Ultimately we make the decision to spend an awful lot of public

03:18 money to take the trams to New Haven but I'm confident the new arrangements we've got in

03:22 place reflect what Lord Hardie has asked for in his recommendations and are proven results given

03:28 the successes of the tram to New Haven. And are you worried that the whole project has had a lasting

03:36 damaging effect, a robust and damaging effect on the council's reputation? So I mean I publicly

03:42 apologise on behalf of council to the particular businesses and communities who've suffered over

03:47 many years in the tram, both line one and line one B, well not line one B sorry, line one and the

03:52 second part of line one B into New Haven. I absolutely accept the disruption that's caused

03:57 to people's life but I'm confident that the successes of the trams to New Haven show us

04:02 that when we bring this in-house, deliver it with council staff managing the project

04:07 and directly negotiating with contractors, bringing in expert advisors as we go through

04:12 has shown us that by managing that project ourselves the likelihood of us extending the

04:17 tram with an internal team having direct accountability to councillors is the right

04:22 way to go and I'm confident that we will deliver a tram further across the city as we go through it.

04:28 That's great, thank you very much.

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