Community Councils Together on Trams: Minutes of meeting held on Thursday 10 January 2019

Leith Links Community Council is a member of ‘Community Councils Together on Trams’ alongside Leith Central Community Council, Leith Harbour & Newhaven Community Council and New Town & Broughton Community Council. CCTT is the coalition of Community Councils who meet regularly to discuss, scrutinise and influence the intended continuation of the Edinburgh Tram system to Newhaven.


Abbreviations

BAFO = best and final offer LW = Leith Walk
CCTT = Community Councils Together on Trams NTBCC = New Town & Broughton Community Council
CEC = City of Edinburgh Council OBC = outline business case
CPZ = controlled parking zone POLHA = Port of Leith Housing Association
CS = Constitution St SPC = swept-path contract
ECI = early contractor involvement TAPOG = CEC’s tram all-party oversight group
EIA = environmental impact assessment TfE = Transport for Edinburgh
FBC = full business case TMRP = Traffic Management Review Panel
ISC = infrastructure and systems contract TN = Trams to Newhaven project
LCCC = Leith Central Community Council TRO = traffic regulation order
LHNCC = Leith Harbour & Newhaven Community Council TT = trams team
LLCC = Leith Links Community Council

1 Welcome, introductions

1.a Attendance

Charlotte Encombe CCTT/LCCC Andrew Mackenzie CCTT/LLCC
Hannah Ross TT/CEC Angus Hardie CCTT/ LLCC
Darren Wraight TT/CEC Rob Levick CCTT/LHNCC
Jennifer Marlborough CCTT/LHNCC Harald Tobermann CCTT/LCCC

1.a Apologies

Margaret Duffy CCTT/NTBCC Bruce Ryan CCTT minutes secretary
Rob Leech TT

2 Review of critical dates from CCTT

A Data Room will be open to councillors. Final Business Case (FBC) plus supporting documentation will be available to all the councillors in the data room. Procurements process is already complete but not published. Councillors will scrutinise procurement through the Finance & Resources Committee in early March but any decision will be subject to Full Council approval of the FBC.

The FBC will be considered by the Transport & Environment Committee on 28 Feb 2019 wherein councillors may speak and CCs can have a delegation. FBC will be made available to the Press on 22 Feb. On 14 March full council meeting, motions can still be tabled; this may cause postponements or amendments. Political briefings will take place prior this, i.e. presentations, explaining the business case, each party briefed separately and independent councillors separately by CEC.

If the FBC is approved the Council will not award contracts until after a procurement “standstill” period meaning contracts would be signed at the end of March. After contract signing there will be a 5 month Early Contractor Involvement (ECI) stage during which time CCTT will be able to liaise with contractor.

JM was assured that Brexit should not have any effect on the tram construction (other than general confusion).

HR explained to AH that the Hardie inquiry is completely independent from CEC so they have no access. Also the main subject is TIE rather than CEC. However, HR noted that CEC have followed the inquiry throughout and as far as possible have included/are including lessons learned. Whenever Hardie publishes his report CEC will endeavour to learn from that as well.

2.a Identify opportunities for further CCTT input at various stages.

HR confirmed that CEC are following the Government Green Book Guidance in finalising the FBC and in doing so seeking to demonstrate that the project stands up in terms of costs and benefits. HR asks if there anything that CCTT would like to see in the FBC. HT: we see them all as quite important and would like to see them all incorporated into the FBC (refer to update programme/issues list inserted at end of minutes as Appendix)

AM: will FBC be specific about issues along the route? In particular Constitution Street? HR: It will probably be more general. There will be information on traffic and construction management . If there are additional problems we have had to allow in the cost plan for that. It’s also reflected in the risk, although these are all commercially sensitive details. The preferred contractor would talk more to the community. AM is still concerned that the detailed designs are still very vague with lots of areas of uncertainty. DW: disagrees, there are 2 options for Constitution St to approve. Discussion follows on how TT has approached the design process, in which DW mentions that TT ‘stands rigidly behind the current design’. HT mentions the possibility/example of changing speed limits for Constitution St. which would have an adverse effect on the tram system. The point made was that the worst case scenario from a construction cost has been reflected within the FBC. DW also mentions that changes in speed limits are not considered at all, just possible changes in hard landscaping.

JM: passes on enquiry about a resident who had a letter from CEC about wires being attached to her building. Causes confusion for residents. DW advises to ask the persons in question to get in touch with him, there is a legal team on hand to help. AM wants to know how many fixings will be attached to buildings along the tram line.

HT: proposes that CCTT should ideally look at the FBC as soon as possible once the data room opens. CCTT members need to lobby our councillors for political inputs.

2.b Update from CCTT

JM’s note was provided through the design consultation and will be closed out through this process. CCTT will be able to express views through forum however consultation is now closed.

3 Update from CCTT

See above.

4 Other items

4.a Review of traffic

In email of 27 Nov 2018 Cllr Munro requested from CEC a review of traffic volume, access and egress and parking at Ocean Terminal. This request ended up with TT as CEC did not have such information. TT has not done any specific modelling in that area because the junction is not being altered for the benefit of the tram.

RL: this letter came from a discussion at LHNCC about traffic impact around western Harbor, where we are going to have building of school, properties etc. in the next 5 years. There are difficulties in Newhaven place, the coaches service the cruise harbor; a number of major projects taking place in a restricted area. LHNCC wants to flag up these potential difficulties, the effect on traffic, which is difficult already. It could turn into a mess that cannot be fixed. DW Tram team has not done any modeling on that junction and suggests that RL gets in contact with the transport planner for that area.

A comment was made about speeding vehicles along Ocean Drive. DW has agreed to arrange a meeting with Cllr Booth and provide him with a response from a tram perspective. DW will also report the problems with noise at night to the technical work group that he attends.

 

4.b List of interdependent programmes and who is responsible

Refer to document

4.b.1 Additional comments:

CE: how could a member of the public challenge any traffic management plans? In the case of the Abbeyhill rotary, it virtually appeared overnight and there was no way for members of the public to challenge that decision. DW: communications are so critical to this project. The Contractor is contractually bound to provide a stakeholder management resource which will be defined at the ECI period. They will give ample notice of any changes in traffic management during construction. Traffic management can be a standing agenda item in future community engagement forums. HT: it will be necessary to have a number of people on the street dealing with issues as they arise. DW: TT acknowledge this and confirm that a strategy will be further developed through the ECI period.

JM: Who is going to manage construction vehicles in the dock area and construction vehicles for other construction projects? DW: There is the Dock Area Working Group to deal with this. On it are Cala Homes, S1 homes, Harrisons, Leith Distillery, Ocean Terminal and Forth Ports, chaired by DW. DW is happy to circulate a list of the various groups, their remits, members and lines of communication.

In HT’s opinion the Supplementary projects list of 10 is far more important to the users of this community than the tram itself. He notes that the construction of the tram is necessarily the most important thing to the tram team, but the above list of issues should be resolved as well as it will be this community that will have to live with the consequences. Every single item on the list should be resolved; should have been resolved a long time ago, and the council needs to get its act together.

5 Quantification of environmental benefits for CC areas impacted by tram corridor: before/during/after.

Could be part of our political case still to be made to make sure that there are some. HT to keep trying to get hold of any data.

6 Next meeting 31 January and 21 February 5.30-7.30pm

RL and DW can be there all or just for some of the time. HR offers to provide answers to any specific queries you may have. DW is also happy to answer specific questions. Next meetings might be split into two parts: first part CCTT with TT for further clarifications and updates; second part for CCTT steering group only to plan best engagement with councillors, media and the wider public.