After a week of discussions, in their highly expensive, secluded retreat at Mar Hall Hotel in the west of Scotland, the parties involved in the Edinburgh trams mediation made a very brief media statement. They told us they "have identified what the problems are holding up the project".
How incredible - after a week of discussion they know why no work is being done! Ask any citizen of Edinburgh why the project has failed and they will tell you - what the report needed to say was that the two sides had actually made some progress in resolving the stand-off. Is this is all that a grossly overpaid Director of Communications could produce?
Most people suspect that the two sides may take a prolonged time to come to some agreement. Perhaps they are all enjoying the delights of Mar Hall, at our expense, just too much to actually make any substantial progress very quickly.
We all know that an incompetent and rushed contract has left the Council and Transport Initiatives Edinburgh (tie) in the weakest of positions, so the German contractors are holding the whip hand. The Bilfiger Berger negotiators should be able to tell us how much the Council incompetence will cost us; they know it already, so let's get on with it and get Edinburgh back to normal. We are told that there will be a good chance that the work will be completed by the end of 2013 with a tram running in 2014, just three years late - so that's all-right then? The people of Edinburgh and the taxpayers of Britain deserve better.
Edinburgh Trams media release on dispute mediation
"City of Edinburgh Council, tie and the consortium members together with Transport Scotland have had a very constructive engagement and have established a mutual understanding of the key issues that have been impeding the progress of the Edinburgh Tram project.
The parties to the contract are working together to firm up the framework for our future working arrangements and the successful delivery of the project.
There will be no further comment whilst this work is underway."
- Log in to post comments
On the plus side...
- Log in to post comments
Let's have some urgency!
While we all welcome the start of the mediation talks it sounds as though there has been a less than satisfactory preparation period for the last series of discussions. As the coment above implies, it looks as though they are simply setting an agenda and the 'rules of engagement' which one would have thought should all have been in place before the principals met.
In Edinburgh we are getting the impression that Transport Initiatives Edinburgh (tie) want to drag this process out as long as possible so the tie staff can enjoy their inflated salaries for as long as they can. They forget that every penny paid to staff is one less for work on the ill-fated project.
- Log in to post comments
I suppose the fact that the "mediation process continues" is a positive sign. However, it does sound like they haven't got beyond having talks about talks since they still have "to firm up the framework for our future working arrangements..."