Edinburgh's plans to merge its bus and tram companies could make decision-making more accountable

PLANS to revamp Edinburgh’s public transport companies could avoid future rows like last year’s controversy over lack of buggy and wheelchair space on new buses.

Officials have suggested the proposed new single company in charge of both the bus and the tram operations will be more accountable to the council.

A consultation is now under way on the merger of the council-owned arms length organisations Lothian Buses, Edinburgh Trams and the current parent company Transport for Edinburgh.

Green co-leader Melanie Main asked officials for reassurance that the new structure would improve decision-making processes and avoid the frustration the public had felt over various issues in the past.

She said: “I’m thinking of the frustration over the decision about buggies and the changes to the buses, where people felt ‘This is our bus service, which we’re incredibly proud of, but why can’t we correct this error?’

“There have been quite a few things over the past few years where the public have been very frustrated at the way in which decisions have been taken.”

Paul Lawrence, the council’s director of place, which includes transport, told her: “I would hope so, I’m not sure I can guarantee that.

“The key issue in that becomes what would become a new shareholder agreement between the council and the new company.

“The directors of the new company, if that’s the route we go down, will be people who make operational decisions. It will be the council’s role as owner to hold that company to account.

“It would be my intention as part of these reforms that a new shareholder agreement would be put in place to try, not necessarily to give tighter control to the council but to make absolutely clear the outcomes the council expects any new company to deliver.”

Last year more than 3,700 passengers signed a petition over access for buggies on Lothian Buses’ new 100-seater double-deckers amid complaints from parents and carers that the vehicles had only one space for either a wheelchair or a pram or buggy. The company was widely criticised for failing to consult on the issue.

Transport convener Lesley Macinnes voiced her concern after receiving emails on the issue and said Lothian buses should “sit up and listen”.

She told a public meeting: “I’ve been asked what the council is doing. We don’t have the right to interfere in this, but I do have the right to talk. And so I have been talking with the chair of Lothian buses about this and the conversation will carry on because I am genuinely concerned.

“Any petition that produces 3700 signatures is one that would make the council sit up and listen and I expect it to do the same for Lothian buses.”

Lothian Buses’ then managing director Richard Hall was called before councillors and when quizzed over the row but insisted: “I don’t think we made a mistake” - though he did also say a second space would be provided.