Tram traffic chaos in streets where you live?--You read it here first.

http://www.scotsman.com/news/transport/driven-round-the-bend-new-town-braced-for-horrendous-disruption-for-next-16-months-1-2412249?commentspage=1#commentsSection

For many years a small group of people in the city were saying the tram project as designed, planned and being forced through would lead to enormous increases in traffic in RESIDENTIAL streets because the tram could not share road space with traffic, and as it was due to annex all the major historic routes, the traffic would have to be forced from these roads and into residential roads.

There was and is no alternative.

The

Inquiry now calls from columnist

Growing calls for action now (and not many years from now),  in a  perceptive column by Gina Davidson.

We couldn't agree more.  

Past mistakes need to be examined, along with the roles played by every political party bar none, the Scottish Government, and not least whether half a thousand million pounds was simply wasted through ineptitude---- or whether some may have been lost less innocently along the way.

But more imporrtantly we need to investigate exactly what the extra pollution.

If at first you don't succeed --- pay for more PR

Another day and another little shaft of light shone in on the way the Tram project has been pursued.

Given the council have a large (very large) and well resourced PR department on the payroll it shouldn't be necessary to spend £1 Million with 4 outside firms on the project PR.

Crisis Management is just spin, there are other elements to it than simply accentuating the positives and ignoring the negatives.

The 'Dark Arts' may have a place in justfying Bankers bonuses to the ordinary 'punter', or weapons sales to third world countries, by dissing dissent and obfuscating facts  but they surely

Don't bother telling us what you spend it on!!

Something is very rotten inside the whole governing process in Scotland relating to the benighted Edinburgh Tram project as recent stories are finally showing.

We now find the Scottish Government threw £500,000,000 into the doorway at City Chambers with less in the way of care and safeguards than any parent would take handing out their children's sweetie money..

It is astonishing that this can have happened, despicable that the political establishment in both City Chambers and Holyrood have fought so long to cover it up  and the fact that so much cash has been burned to build so little

Errors and omissions in Sue Bruce's speech

An article based upon examination of a speech made to an environmental conference in June 2012 by City of Edinburgh Council CEO Sue Bruce.

Errors and omissions in Sue Bruce's speech

Sue Bruce the CEO of Edinburgh Council has made a speech (full text of report here) which contains a number of big statements and claims about the benefits of the tram project, unfortunately they seem to be unsupported by the actual facts in the Council's own reports.

This story (here) is to be circulated to press, media , all councillors and a group of MSPs and MPs who have shown a real interest in getting to the bottom of this mess.

The residents behind this site who have fought for years to bring the true facts and effects of the Tram project to public awareness will be happy to debate

Temporary changes on a permanent basis

This story in the Scotsman  will not be a surprise to anyone who has followed the Resident's battle to get the Council to own up to the truth of the enormous effects the Project will have on the city...after all the Residents were saying traffic will be permanently increased throughout the wider New Town over two years ago.

The two extracts below from the story on the link illustrate very familiar tactics by the Council's  for getting the unpalatable effects of the project past a public which in truth has never shown any true depth of support for it.

...................The council yesterday

No sign of sense returning to Edinburgh

 

Respected Columnist Alan Cochrane makes some robust points about the Tram Project in this article. In the Telegraph, showing it is now having a permanent effect on how people think of the City.  

While in this article in the Scotsman the City Council, through it's wholly owned subsidiary (now defunct) Tie Ltd, stands accused of using payment systems that effectively reduce the tax and National Insurance take for the Public Purpse in the way it set up payments for senior former executives who have been effectively rewarded for failure.

WHO cares! -- But does Edinburgh Council

The World Health Organisation has announced Diesel fumes are a cause of cancers.

Quite rightly we should be concerned and quite rightly we shouldn't panic.

 The risk is thought to be small compared to, for example, the chances of getting cancer from smoking.  

However the risk from traffic created pollution, of which diesel forms a large part, also has other effects apart from causing cancer.  It causes heart attacks and strokes (by thickening blood) and also respiratory condistions and chronic illness through it's effects on the lungs.  

Indeed the risk to health in the opinion of the

112-b--Reply by Edinburgh Council CEO Sue Bruce to open letter-4th May 2012

After receiving the open letter from the group of independent Edinburgh Civil engineers commenting on aspects of the tram project construction they found worrying, Sue Bruce the Chief Executive of the City of Edinburgh Council  sent this comprehensive reply dated 4th May 2012

 

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