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10 September 2009

(S3O-7721) Edinburgh Trams

7. Ian McKee (Lothians) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Government what discussions the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Sustainable Growth has had with the City of Edinburgh Council in the last 12 months on the subject of the Edinburgh trams project. (S3O-7721)

The Minister for Transport, Infrastructure and Climate Change (Stewart Stevenson):





The cabinet secretary and I have had no discussions with the City of Edinburgh Council on the trams project over the past 12 months.

Ian McKee: The tram chiefs have admitted that the project will fail to be completed on time and on budget, as the Scottish National Party Administration predicted. Does the minister agree that not a penny more of Government funding should be given to finance the project?

Stewart Stevenson: Members will recall that, early in the Government's life, the Conservative party, the Liberal Democrat party and the Labour Party voted to continue the trams project; we would have liberated the £500 million for other important transport projects throughout Scotland. I have made it clear on many occasions in the past that that is the limit of the Government's support. That was forced on us. We have £500 million available for the project. We have no more, and there will be no more.

Margaret Smith (Edinburgh West) (LD): I did not intend to ask a question about the trams project, but I am absolutely gobsmacked by what the minister has just said. Some £500 million of taxpayers' money—for which he is responsible—is tied up in the project. Given the difficulties that the project has had over the past year, and irrespective of the differences of opinion about whether it should have gone ahead, I am gobsmacked that he has not had any discussions on the matter with the council. Would it not have been useful to have done so?

Stewart Stevenson: The project is entirely a matter for the City of Edinburgh Council. My officials carefully monitor the payments that we make to it, which are related to the progress that is made. They will continue to do that with the professionalism with which I always see them conduct themselves. It is important that members understand that the project is a City of Edinburgh Council project and that it is for the council to complete it.

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