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£10m land sale to help pay bill for trams

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Published Date: 17 December 2007
AROUND £10 million worth of council land is to be sold off to help pay for the city's tram line.
Parcels of land that flank the Newhaven to airport route will be sold, mainly for housing, by council chiefs to make up the city's £45m contribution to the scheme. Among the plots earmarked to be sold off is land around Balgreen Primary School, Bankh
ead Drive and Constitution Street Yards. Land left over after changes to accommodate trams on the Greenside Place roundabout could also be sold off.

Around half of the £45m will come from developers' contributions though, in order to fulfil its commitments now, city leaders are planning to borrow against future contributions. They have only banked £2.2m of contributions so far though a further £6.5m is expected.

The council's trams fundraising package has today been described as "very prudent" in an independent review by economic consultants DTZ. But critics said the local authority had still to show how it would pay for any overruns on the £498m project.

Councillor Nick Elliot-Cannon, the SNP's finance spokesman, said: "We still have real concerns over the tram scheme, not least because nearly every major public construction project in recent history has run over budget and it is Edinburgh's taxpayers who will pick up the bill."



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  • Last Updated: 17 December 2007 10:57 AM
  • Source: Edinburgh Evening News
  • Location: Edinburgh
  • Related Topics: Edinburgh transport plans
 
1

Bob 2,

17/12/2007 12:42:08
hold on,

Wasn't the council taxpayer NOT GOING to be contributing to the Tram Line.

Looks like they are selling off the family silver by the backdoor.

Should't the Money raised by put back into the Council Coffers for the benefit of the ALL Edinburgh Residents?
2

Hmm ...,

17/12/2007 12:57:42
Interesting that the report didn't mention the proposal that Balgreen bowlng green should be sold off as well to make the Balgreen primary school site more substantial. Or that the "developer contribution" was intended to run for TWENTY YEARS or as much longer than that as it takes to clear the borrowings (and, presumably, interest).

To read the full report, see http://cpol.edinburgh.gov.uk/getdoc_ext.asp?DocId=106233
3

Hmm ...,

17/12/2007 13:01:12
... and they can't resist the proposal to build "an iconic" office building at the top of Leith Walk, the architect to be selected by a competition.

Who said lessons were learned from the Scottish Parliament building fiasco?
4

Hmm ...,

17/12/2007 13:01:59
... that's http://cpol.edinburgh.gov.uk/getdoc_ext.asp?DocId=106233

It is worth reading!
5

Hmm ...,

17/12/2007 13:04:11
... and surely the proceeds of sale of Balgreen Primary school should be put into the Schools budget - which could certainly use the additional cash!

In honest circles, wouldn't this be called "misappropriation"?
6

Thomas the Tank,

Edinburgh 17/12/2007 13:07:08
So,if I'm reading this story right, it seems the Kooncil/Tie Business Plan for Anderson and Burns' TramCar Vanity-Project is in tatters and we've already got a funding black hole of around 25% of Edinburgh's contribution? And Jenny Dawe's cast of amateurs are desperately trawling round for corners of land to flog off? The 'Waterfront Fantasy' is becoming 'interesting' with the property price-collapse and the 'Not a Penny More' motion was backed by all parties at Holyrood. Any shortfall is down to the Council, but not the Council Tax. Surcharges for gross maladministration, anyone?
7

alex paterson,

embra 17/12/2007 13:31:58
Cllr Nick Elliot-Cannon is clueless and should be fired.
8

Mallory,

Edinburgh 17/12/2007 13:58:23
Another opportunity lost to swell the Common Good?
9

Bring Back Poll Tax,

Comfy Chair, Havana and Courvoisier in hand 17/12/2007 14:40:15
It's nice that the council has realised that it can flog off assets to pay for this white elephant - unfortunately they haven't got to the bit in the "Dummies Guide to Local Authority Finance" (available from Amazon - only £19.99 in a brown envelope) that points out that this is a once only trick and you can't sell the same piece of land over and over to fill annual deficits like the tram's operating losses.
10

Bring Back Poll Tax,

Comfy Chair, Havana and Courvoisier to hand 17/12/2007 14:46:22
Splendid, they've realised that they can flog off assets to fill their tram hole. I can't wait until they get to the relevant bit of the "Dummies guide to Local Authority Finance" (Amazon.co.uk - £19.99 - send cash only in a plain brown envelope marked "campaign funds").

This points out that you can only sell an asset once, then it isn't available to be sold again to cover annual funding gaps such as the Tram system operating loss.......
11

observator,

Edinburgh 17/12/2007 19:24:00
Remember that this project has been foisted on us by a united front of Conservatives, Lib Dems and Labour!
12

Sarah B,

Edinburgh 17/12/2007 23:40:16
Hmmm (2 -5) - isn't it interesting how the EN is choosing to report on tram-related stories?

I see from the report that what is being considered is Balgreen Nursery undergoing "a combined redevelopment of the bowling greens (CEC ownership) and the Balgreen Primary School", with the anticipated revenue to go straight to the tram project. I wonder if the Balgreen parents and the local community have been consulted on this matter.

I would have thought this raises, not only the issue of the selling off of Council and local assets to fund the tramline, but also (in direct contradiction of what Councillor McLaren has promised) the loss of proceeds to education in Edinburgh in favour of the tram scheme.

Just goes to show that (a) you can rarely believe what a politician says, and (b) that the EN either does not understand the implications of this suggestion, or else considers it acceptable for politicians to mislead the public about how our money and assets are utilised.

13

Mark Renton,

Edinburgh 18/12/2007 08:57:10
Abolish the tram-scam!! They are all lying, can yee not see?
14

GrahamH,

Edinburgh 21/12/2007 20:15:33
So there is an overspend or was this sell off planned and just nobody told us about it?

 

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