Government fire aid is a tale of two cities
At the tail end of last week, Edinburgh Trams ruled out moving any of their vehicles by road to bypass the closure of Princes Street and restore at least some service east of the city centre.
That was always going to be logistically challenging, but like many folk who saw the council’s transport convener muse about it earlier in the week I thought it mustn’t be beyond the wit of man to manage it. Surely it should be possible with a bit of creative thinking? But, without depot services in Newhaven, and given the cost, moving the trams themselves is apparently not practical.
Now, of course there are limited options for managing the tram when Princes Street has to be closed. You can’t move a tram line after all.
Yet, if the issue is cost, there are always options. In March, the Scottish Government offered Glasgow Council a £10 million emergency support fund within a week of the Union Corner building fire to ‘rebuild and renew’ the affected area of the city. Three weeks on, no such financial package has been revealed for Edinburgh.
Edinburgh is on the brink of its busiest season. The city’s population is about to double, as it always does in August, and our key transport corridor is closed.
Some businesses have reported revenue down by up to 60 per cent, with footfall plummeting. Our phenomenally expensive tram system is hamstrung and our buses bogged down in the quagmire of George Street and Charlotte Square.
If he looked outside, the First Minister could see this from his window in Bute House. The capital city of the country he leads, his seat of government, is gridlocked.
In which other European nation would the Government turn around and say “No, you’re on your own” having thrown support at a similar challenge somewhere else not six months ago?
The First Minister’s inconsistent approach suggests he is happy to make a one-off announcement to grab a headline, but that his government lacks any real strategy for dealing with these awful events when they happen across the country. In contrast to John Swinney’s glitzy rhetoric, that is not delivering for all of Scotland.
You might say, this is on the council, not the Government – and that’s fair. Edinburgh Council has to lead here, get this sorted and do so as swiftly and safely as possible.
But when we have a Government willing to support in some cases but not others, obvious questions remain. Like, for instance, were Edinburgh a city council run by the SNP, would the cash then flow to Edinburgh, as it does to Glasgow?