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So, Edinburgh council recently made the decision to stop the trams at Haymarket station, which (for those of you who don't know Edinburgh) means that it basically stops a mile and a half from the city centre. This would save about £9m/year, at the cost of leaving us with a tram system that doesn't actually go anywhere useful. The decision has been roundly condemned by all sorts of people as being the sort of solution which is fuck all use. Businesses were particularly apoplectic, as having had huge amounts of disruption they were hoping that there might actually be an upside if the trams ever got finished.
The decision was voted in by Labour and the Tories, with the Lib Dems voting against (they want the trams to go to St Andrews Square, in the centre of the city), with the SNP abstaining (because they've always been anti-tram, and have washed their hands of the whole thing).
Today, it's transpired that because the tram line isn't going to deliver what was promised, the Scottish government (SNP) are going to withhold the final £60m of the block grant they were contributing.
The previous decision by the council wasn't something that could be reopened - unless something happened which materially changed the consequences. The withholding of the grant does that, so there's going to be a special meeting on Friday.
At which, if I had to make a guess, the SNP will say "You lot couldn't organise a piss-up in a brewery" and vote in favour of the trams going to St Andrews Square, thus looking like they sorted out an intractable problem, and stopped Edinburgh looking more stupid than it already did for the constant stream of tram-related fuckups over the last few years.
I wonder if they had that planned all along.
More here.
Edit: Oh for fuck's sake. They'll also have to hand back £5m and write off £20m of contributions made by businesses on the grounds that the trams would go past their front doors. More here.
The decision was voted in by Labour and the Tories, with the Lib Dems voting against (they want the trams to go to St Andrews Square, in the centre of the city), with the SNP abstaining (because they've always been anti-tram, and have washed their hands of the whole thing).
Today, it's transpired that because the tram line isn't going to deliver what was promised, the Scottish government (SNP) are going to withhold the final £60m of the block grant they were contributing.
The previous decision by the council wasn't something that could be reopened - unless something happened which materially changed the consequences. The withholding of the grant does that, so there's going to be a special meeting on Friday.
At which, if I had to make a guess, the SNP will say "You lot couldn't organise a piss-up in a brewery" and vote in favour of the trams going to St Andrews Square, thus looking like they sorted out an intractable problem, and stopped Edinburgh looking more stupid than it already did for the constant stream of tram-related fuckups over the last few years.
I wonder if they had that planned all along.
More here.
Edit: Oh for fuck's sake. They'll also have to hand back £5m and write off £20m of contributions made by businesses on the grounds that the trams would go past their front doors. More here.
