Appointment of new Lothian Buses directors paused over link to Edinburgh tram project

The Capital's transport committee was due to rubber stamp the addition of Loraine Strachan, Stephanie Rivet and Peter Strachan to the board of the publicly-owned bus company.

But instead the decision was postponed until next month’s full council meeting so officers can give assurances that “due diligence” was carried out.

Three new directors are proposed for Lothian Buses board

A report to Thursday's committee meeting included only the names of the proposed new non-executive directors with no further information about them or their qualifications for the role. A note with brief biographies was circulated at the last-minute after a request from councillors.

Tory group leader Iain Whyte said: "One of the people involved, in my understanding, was a non-executive director of both TIE and TEL, council-owned companies responsible for the original tram project, during the period when the project went off the rails.

"What due diligence have we done around that appointment in terms of questioning around learning from that experience for the individual, but also reputationally for both the council and Lothian Buses if we make that appointment?"

Gareth Barwell, interim director of place, said it was for the board and nominations committee of Lothian Buses to consider whether they were recruiting people with the right skillsets.

But he added: "Some of the issues you've cited have been noted by that board, but they have come to the conclusion that the benefits of bringing that person onto their board outweigh any concerns that others may have."

Green councillor Chas Booth said he shared some of Cllr Whyte's concerns and asked whether a delay to allow councillors to be briefed on the due diligence carried out would create problems for Lothian Buses, but officers were unable to say.

Committee convener Stephen Jenkinson said the council leader and a senior officer had been involved in the recruitment process, which followed Lothian Buses' standard procedures.  "What we're being asked to do is ratify a decision that has already been taken."

SNP transport spokesman Danny Aston said he accepted this was fundamentally a matter for Lothian Buses.  "But if it's coming to this committee, I think it is important we're making an informed choice."

And he pointed out that restructuring of the council's arms-length companies meant that membership of the Lothian Buses Board would effectively be "copied and pasted across" to its other transport companies.   

Cllr Whyte proposed the decision should be referred to full council on November 7 to allow officers to provide “further assurance” on the due diligence undertaken in selecting the three candidates. Cllr Jenkinson accepted the proposal and the committee agreed.

Documents from the inquiry into the Edinburgh tram project show that Peter Strachan worked on infrastructure projects for British Rail, Railtrack, Network Rail and National Express Australia before becoming a non-executive director of both the council’s tram firm TIE and the linked body TEL (Transport for Edinburgh Ltd).

He quit after a deal was reached with the tram contractors in 2011 to resolve differences and complete the project. He said the non-executive directors had been bypassed and not allowed to carry out their role of scrutiny.

But in his witness statement he found no fault with TIE or TEL in their handling of the project and blamed contractor Bilfinger Berger for an “adversarial” approach and exploiting opportunities to extract additional money.