08 June 2007
Scotland's auditor general, Bob Black, is to review the cost projections of controversial airport rail link and tram plans for Edinburgh before a final decision is made on whether the projects should go ahead.
Finance Secretary John Swinney announced the decision this week. He has asked Audit Scotland to 'review the process used to assess costs and risks to delivery' of the projects, which are expected to cost more than £1bn.
The tramway plan and separate rail airport links project were agreed by the former Labour and Liberal Democrat administration at Holyrood. But the Scottish National Party, which is well short of a majority in the Scottish Parliament and needs the support of other parties to get its policies through, had an election manifesto commitment to scrap both schemes.
It is now under pressure from Labour and the LibDems to press ahead with the plans. Work has already started on the tram project and the firm developing it, TIE (Transport Initiatives Edinburgh) believes it would cost £114m to scrap the scheme.
Announcing the review, Swinney said: 'My priority is to protect the Scottish taxpayer and ensure that any major transport project is value for money, delivering real benefit to the travelling public and the Scottish economy.
'I want to be absolutely sure about the calculation of the costs involved in these projects and the assessment of risk involved, before they progress any further.'
Audit Scotland said this week it has been asked by the finance secretary to bring forward part of a planned report on major capital projects in order to look specifically at the tram and airport link projects. It was now starting to work on the scope of the report, with the intention of publishing it by the end of June.
Black said: 'These major financial projects will have an impact on Scotland's budget for many years, and I can well understand that Parliament would like more information about the detail of both projects sooner rather than later.'
But Labour transport spokesman Des McNulty cast doubt on the value of the review. 'I am worried the auditor general might be being brought in to find something that would justify SNP policy,' he said.
PFjun2007
