Swinney: Tram inquiry ‘would be distraction’

HOLDING a public inquiry into the city’s trams fiasco would be a distraction to the current project, the Scottish Government has said.

Finance Secretary John Swinney ruled out the possibility of holding the inquest, adding that he wanted to “let the project get more progress under its belt” before analysing what went wrong.

It comes as a senior city council official admitted the local authority made a “big mistake” in agreeing to shoulder certain responsibilities when the contract was being drawn up.

But director of city development Dave Anderson did say that he did not expect there to be a lasting financial problem for the organisation.

He said: “With the benefit of hindsight about the complications with the utility diversions, it would have been preferable to have had the risk borne by the contractors.”