Cash waste over Merseytram after local infighting

Jan 21 2008 by David Bartlett, Liverpool Daily Post

TWO Merseyside public bodies spent taxpayers’ money on consultants and legal advisors fighting each other over the region’s failed tram scheme, the Daily Post can reveal.

A leaked report criticises the way Merseytravel and Liverpool City Council acted towards each other in the run-up to Merseytram being scrapped in November 2005.

Last week, the Audit Commission published the findings of an investigation into how Merseytravel spent £70m on the tram scheme without a single piece of track being laid.

Of the £70m bill to fund the groundwork for the scheme, the authority borrowed £50m, and is spending almost £5m each year to pay off the debt.

The report into how Merseytravel and local councils work together formed part of the investigation, but was not made public at the time, and has since been obtained by the Daily Post.

The Audit Commission argues that if the authority and Liverpool City Council in particular had worked more closely, “this scheme could have succeeded, or have been stopped before so much public money was spent”.

The auditor also argues the failure of the scheme has impacted on Merseyside’s reputation to deliver large projects.

“Perhaps most fundamentally, Merseyside does not now have the realistic prospect of a tram scheme being completed in the near future,” the report states.

This view is not shared by Merseytravel, and Line One (Liverpool to Kirkby) of Merseytram continues to be in the Local Transport Plan, and discussions are already under way with ministers about the possibility of reviving the scheme.

“There was certainly a lack of co-operation being demonstrated by the city council and Merseytravel, with officers not engaging in routine dialogue across the organisations,” the report states.

“Merseytravel point, in particular, to a negatively-worded confidential report to the city council’s executive board that had been shared in advance with the Department for Transport.”

“During this period, public money was also spent on obtaining legal advice provided separately to Liverpool City Council and Merseytravel to counter the advice received by one another.” Merseytravel will publicly respond next month, but a letter from chief executive Neil Scales to the Audit Commission makes clear he blames former council chief executive Sir David Henshaw for the collapse of the scheme.

davidbartlett