As someone who wrote to the First Minister back in June last year I very much welcome the Edinburgh Trams Interim Report by Audit Scotland which confirms, for public knowledge, all the reports which the Council and Transport Initiatives Edinburgh (Tie) have been trying hard to conceal. It took a campaign in the media and letters to MSPs to force this review of the performance of Tie to be conducted and now one hopes that there will be a touch more transparency in the Council's and Tie's relations with the public.
The Tie response was entirely predictable and sounds like a stricken man, nearing death but fighting to survive. But of course Tie officials in their grossly overpaid jobs (average salary in the region of £56k) are desperate to hang on to their jobs and will do or say anything to stop the project being cut.
The fact that £402 million has already been spent - some 74% of the total available - and only 28% of the infrastructure has been built are shocking figures. As taxpayers and Council Tax payers in Edinburgh, our greatest fear is that this utter shambles will be granted additional money for Edinburgh Council and Tie to waste on this project. In these times of massive cuts in public expenditure the public would not forgive any administration which wasted more money on this disgraceful project.
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