Edinburgh council urged to investigate claims tram works caused structural damage to Anchorfield tenement

A Leith SNP councillor will table a motion at this week's full council meeting to investigate claims tram works caused tenement damage

Residents were evacuated from the Anchorfield tenement last month

Edinburgh council is being urged to investigate claims that tram works caused structural damage to a tenement which has forced residents to move out. 

An evacuation of the block in response to serious safety concerns last month saw those living in its 12 flats given just one hour to collect their things and leave. 

Amid speculation over the cause of the hairline crack which surveys confirmed compromised the Newhaven building’s “structural integrity”, some of the residents affected have turned their attention to new tram tracks laid across the road last year as part of the line’s extension through Leith. 

Local councillor Adam Nols-McVey said the project “may be a contributory cause” of damage to the Anchorfield tenement on Lindsay Road but said it “remains uncertain”. 

The SNP group leader is set to table a motion at this week’s full council meeting requesting officials to detail any communications with the Trams to Newhaven team “in order to identify if the construction of the tram line has resulted in the building becoming unstable”.

He will also urge officers to say when they expect residents and businesses to be able to move back in as well as “details of insurance cover of the tram project, all cases settled and all cases outstanding awaiting settlement of residents’ claims”. 

Residents were given one hour's notice to evacuate the Anchorfield tenement last month

The council has said keeping the community safe was its “number one priority” and that given “serious concerns about the structure of the building”, the safest option “was to evacuate all households without delay”. 

However the local authority has come under fire from residents over what one called “totally abysmal” communication about the situation. 

The alarm was first raised at the start of December after the 3cm crack was spotted on an external wall, which led to residents being told scaffolding would be required at some point to make the building safe. However they were given no update until the rushed evacuation. 

In his motion Cllr Nols-McVey, who will raise the matter in the City Chambers on Thursday (February 8), said it was disappointing that “despite initial notification of the issues to the Council on 3rd December and with the council writing to all residents on 13th December advising them that the Council would engage a Framework Contractor in order to make safe the building, residents were instructed to leave their properties with one hour’s notice on 22nd January.