Edinburgh trams back on track as SNP and Labour signal support for scheme

City councillors likely to agree rescue deal this week after two parties switch sides and back plan for city centre link Councillors in Edinburgh are expected to agree a last-minute rescue deal to save the city’s tram project after the Scottish National party switched tack to support the scheme. Labour councillors are also expected to support the controversial proposal to run trams through to the city centre at an emergency meeting this Friday, the Guardian has learned, despite their blocking of the plan six days ago. The series of sharp U-turns by both parties follows a blunt ultimatum by the Scottish government on Tuesday that it would withhold £72m in funding for the scheme unless the council builds the line through the city centre. It is the latest in a series of crises to have hit the project, which was originally to build an 11-mile line from Edinburgh airport through the city centre, and on through Leith to a terminus at Newhaven on the coast. The Newhaven section has been put on hold after a series of bitter disputes with the contractors and steep cost overruns; the latest battles are over whether to stop the line at St Andrew Square in the city centre or two miles to the west of that, at Haymarket. Councillor Steve Cardownie, head of the SNP group and deputy council leader in the ruling Liberal Democrat-SNP coalition, told the Edinburgh Evening News that his party would vote for the trams on Friday. Cardownie, whose party faced heavy criticism for abstaining during crucial votes last week, said: “The SNP group, despite all objections to the tram project, will step in to ensure that the line goes to St Andrew Square at least. “The people of Edinburgh have been short-changed already. They were promised a line to Newhaven and we will not see them short-changed again by seeing the line curtailed to Haymarket, which lacks business sense and common sense.” Edinburgh’s Labour leader, Andrew Burns, said the Scottish government’s threat to withdraw the £72m meant his group too was likely to support the line being build to St Andrew Square. “That’s my initial reaction but we haven’t got the report [from officials on the costings],” he said. Labour and the Conservatives were stunned by the revelation that the sharply escalating costs and delays for the project meant the city would need to borrow £230m extra to complete the line to St Andrew Square, close to Waverley station and the city’s main bus station. That is expected to push the total cost up from an original budget of £545m to more than £1bn, with the city facing annual repayment costs of £15m for 30 years. The project’s costs have almost doubled because of a series of bitter and lengthy disputes between the city and its engineering contractors, cost overruns from unexpected obstacles along the route, including gas and water mains, design errors and now the extra cost of borrowing. Councillors were also shocked to be told that city officials had overestimated the costs of completely cancelling the line by £100m. Burns said this shattered their confidence in the official figures for the project. “If the decision is made eventually to get to St Andrew Square, I have serious fears about the future finances of this council,” he said. “We have a myriad of other public services that this council has to provide and we have to look at that in the round.” Jenny Dawe, the council and Lib Dem leader, told the Evening News: “I am really pleased that our coalition colleagues have decided to vote in favour of a tram to St Andrew Square. “It has not been easy for them and I realise they have had to drop a longstanding opposition to trams, but it shows political maturity that they realise that the options of Haymarket or termination are not the best options.” Edinburgh Scotland Transport Scottish politics Severin Carrell guardian.co.uk

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