Political self-preservation behind decision to shelve Granton tram

There has been much wailing and gnashing of teeth of late up in Edinburgh’s City Chambers due to the fact that the political Groups that make up the council could not agree on the northern part of the proposed North-South tram route - a conclusion which was entirely predictable.

Neither of the competing routes, Roseburn Path or Dean Bridge, could command a majority of councillors voting in favour, so it was back to the drawing board. How did we get into this mess? Quite simply politics, along with a large dose of self-preservation.

With council elections just around the corner next May, parties did not want to run the risk of falling foul of the electorate by plumping for one route over the other, as both carried an element of controversy with them and may have spoiled their chances of getting one or more of their number elected back up to the High Street.

Councillors can dress it up as much as they like, but that is the truth of the matter. With one eye on the tram route and the other on the ballot box it was better to avoid the potential banana skin and shelve the northern part of the route and just proceed with the southern part, which is not short of potential engineering problems itself.

And where is the money to build it coming from in any case? A couple of weeks ago Tory group leader Cllr Iain Whyte took to the pages of this newspaper when referring to the original tram line that “We’ve had the huge cost overruns and delays on the half built original project.”

This was the same Iain Whyte who poured scorn on my argument during a full council meeting that the scheme had the potential to become a “Holyrood on wheels”, insisting that there were too many checks and balances in the project that would prevent that from happening. Do I note a change of tune here Iain?

It was never going to be easy to determine where the line should run down to Granton, but councillors set the wheels in motion and have now hit the buffers!