Dear All
When the SNP Government came to power, they were against the Edinburgh tram system despite this the Labour Party and others got this turkey approved.
Now, the extent of the Labour Party’s lack of vision is coming home to roost, from the building of Holyrood to the current tram project, everything that Labour has a hand in turns to crap.
Pretty much the project wasn’t properly thought-out and everyone is paying the price for that now.
Edinburgh’s tram system will not be completed on time; a provisional date of 2014 is now being touted as possible, a delay of two years.
On top of that the final bill is going to cost an additional £100 million pounds but expect this to rise.
This project was an example of the Labour Party’s short term thinking to grab headlines and to be seen to be doing something.
Well they have been doing something; they have created a financial disaster.
Words like “living in denial” and “crisis” are being thrown about as the blame game starts between German construction giant Bilfinger Berger, the tram developers and Edinburgh City Council.
The scale of the crisis was laid out in a letter from Bilfinger UK’s managing director, Richard Walker to senior executive members of the council at a meeting of the Tram Project Board.
If they are sticking it down in paper, you know it is serious.
The meeting, the council and its arms’-length company overseeing the tram project, Transport Initiatives Edinburgh (Tie) has led to them announcing they would seek to have the project completed by 2012.
The solution by the Council is to pursue a contractual dispute with Bilfinger and consortium partner Siemens.
Valuable time, energy and money will be further lost by this strategy.
As well as the technical difficulties, the Edinburgh Council couldn’t get the wording of the initial contract right, even with lawyers.
Three contractual disputes with Tie board on the wording of the trams contract have been decided in favour of Bilfinger.
So, I would think the blame the Germans strategy isn’t going to work.
It is clear that the current Tie Board is not up to the task so should be cleared out because of their lack of engagement and embarking on an ever increasing number of legal disputes.
It may transpire that the Scottish Government may have to step in and act as the Edinburgh Council doesn’t seem capable of handling this major construction project, at the very least they should set up a taskforce to do an overview of what is currently going on.
There is talk that this fiasco could be worse than the Holyrood Parliament project under the former corrupt civil servant Sir Muir Russell.
And that is going something.
Yours sincerely
George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University
When the SNP Government came to power, they were against the Edinburgh tram system despite this the Labour Party and others got this turkey approved.
Now, the extent of the Labour Party’s lack of vision is coming home to roost, from the building of Holyrood to the current tram project, everything that Labour has a hand in turns to crap.
Pretty much the project wasn’t properly thought-out and everyone is paying the price for that now.
Edinburgh’s tram system will not be completed on time; a provisional date of 2014 is now being touted as possible, a delay of two years.
On top of that the final bill is going to cost an additional £100 million pounds but expect this to rise.
This project was an example of the Labour Party’s short term thinking to grab headlines and to be seen to be doing something.
Well they have been doing something; they have created a financial disaster.
Words like “living in denial” and “crisis” are being thrown about as the blame game starts between German construction giant Bilfinger Berger, the tram developers and Edinburgh City Council.
The scale of the crisis was laid out in a letter from Bilfinger UK’s managing director, Richard Walker to senior executive members of the council at a meeting of the Tram Project Board.
If they are sticking it down in paper, you know it is serious.
The meeting, the council and its arms’-length company overseeing the tram project, Transport Initiatives Edinburgh (Tie) has led to them announcing they would seek to have the project completed by 2012.
The solution by the Council is to pursue a contractual dispute with Bilfinger and consortium partner Siemens.
Valuable time, energy and money will be further lost by this strategy.
As well as the technical difficulties, the Edinburgh Council couldn’t get the wording of the initial contract right, even with lawyers.
Three contractual disputes with Tie board on the wording of the trams contract have been decided in favour of Bilfinger.
So, I would think the blame the Germans strategy isn’t going to work.
It is clear that the current Tie Board is not up to the task so should be cleared out because of their lack of engagement and embarking on an ever increasing number of legal disputes.
It may transpire that the Scottish Government may have to step in and act as the Edinburgh Council doesn’t seem capable of handling this major construction project, at the very least they should set up a taskforce to do an overview of what is currently going on.
There is talk that this fiasco could be worse than the Holyrood Parliament project under the former corrupt civil servant Sir Muir Russell.
And that is going something.
Yours sincerely
George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University
2 comments:
Who, apart from the idiots that started it, actually wants the trams?
Dear Rab
I would hazard a guess and say the German contractors.
This is a finanical disaster.
And the Labour Party are to blame.
Yours sincerely
George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University
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