Edinburgh tram project spends £16k on Facebook ads, more than double the council's spend on Covid-19 communications

The revelation has led to opposition asking whether the council has “got its priorities right”.

More than double the cash was spent on tram extension advertising than on Covid-19 communications by the council.

Social media giants received almost £16,000 in cash from Edinburgh City Council in connection with advertising spending to publicise the tram extension to Newhaven since the beginning of 2018.

The amount is more than double the amount spent by the council on all communications in connection with the Covid-19 pandemic which saw just £900 spent on social media advertising.

In total, the council spent just over £7,600 on Covid-19 ads since March this year including £3,000 on a radio advert for the changes to bin services and another £3,300 on physical communications about service disruption.

However, in January alone the council spent £3,415 on Facebook adverts for the tram extension, with advertising for the trams halted in March following the onset of the pandemic.

The tram project has since restarted digital advertising, but costs are not yet available for the social media adverts.

When including all promotional material spending on the trams including letters to residents, posters and leaflets, the council has spent £64,000 on communications for the public transport project.

Opposition politicians said the revelation brought into question the council’s priorities.

Liberal Democrat transport spokesman, Cllr Kevin Lang, said it was time for the council to rethink its communications strategy.

He said: “Many residents will look at these figures and question whether the council has got its priorities right. In the middle of a crisis which has upended every person’s life, it’s now clear the council spent only only a fraction on digital information when compared to the tram budget.

“It underlines a need to rethink the council’s whole communications strategy. Just last week, the SNP and Labour administration was merrily churning out self-congratulatory press releases that were convincing nobody.

"Rather than trying to pat themselves on the back, the administration should be focused on getting up to date information to those who need it, particularly online.”

Conservative transport spokesperson, Cllr Sue Webber, said businesses would “bite your hand off” for a marketing budget as large as the trams.

She said: “This yet again clearly shows where the council’s priorities lie.

"If the trams are as welcome and loved in the city as the administration continue to profess then this level of advertising spend would not be needed.

"I know many struggling businesses right now that would bite your hand off for the £64k marketing budget.”

Council Leader Adam McVey said the council had agreed free advertising with JCDecaux which would have otherwise added to its Covid-19 spend and labelled the comparison "misleading”.

He said: “Teams across the council have worked extremely hard during the COVID outbreak to ensure services have been delivered as close to normally as possible.

"This has, of course, included the communication of service changes, certain restrictions in place and other local information, to complement the wider Scottish Government public health information encouraging people to stay at home.

“Separately from this, over the last two years we have carried out considerable work to engage with the public on the Trams to Newhaven scheme’s design and to inform residents and support businesses during construction, as part of an agreed budget.

"This has been essential to minimising disruption on the people that live and work in the area, as well as involving them in its development, as is the case for any major project of this nature.

“To compare the two, over different time periods, is extremely misleading and doesn’t take into account a number of factors.

"These include free billboard advertising offered for COVID-related messaging by JCDecaux, which would be of significant value, additional promotional spend on other non-COVID-related service areas and the impact of national messages encouraging people to stay at home for much of this period.”

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