Departure of Lothian Buses boss will leave a job difficult to fill – John McLellan

With leaked emails revealing the strained relationship between departing Lothian Buses MD Richard Hall and the City Council, maybe transport and environment convener Lesley Macinnes’ statement was positively effusive. “We thank Richard Hall for his service and wish him the best in his future endeavours,” she said.

But given this is the no-compulsory-redundancies, all-our-officers-are-wonderful world of the public sector, perhaps not. Not even all the best. Unless there are more to come, the leaks look suspiciously selected to paint Mr Hall as poorly as possible; I never found him evasive or unapproachable. Quite the opposite, and I’ve been one of his critics.

Mr Hall certainly made mistakes, but nothing so serious as, say, allowing a structure the size of an aircraft carrier in one of the most sensitive sites in Edinburgh without planning permission. No, I suspect Mr Hall was guilty of something much more heinous; being less than enthusiastic about the council’s £20m raid on his company to fund the Newhaven tram while facing the disruption of city centre bus routes and paying for a free “hopper” bus service.

As constituents in my ward are finding out, subsidised routes like the axed 15 into Restalrig and the little 69 up the hill to Lady Nairn are incompatible with the Council’s thirst for cash to fund their plans. The question is will the £220,000 salary be the same and which transport professional is going to stake their reputation under these circumstances? Commercial director Nigel Serafini might be interim boss for some time.