Leader of the council, Judith Blake (photo courtesy of Yorkshire Post Newspapers)
In July 2016, the leader of the council, Judith Blake, set up an inquiry into the failed trolleybus and tram schemes.1
The inquiry was conducted by a group of councillors collectively known as the Scrutiny Board (Infrastructure and Investment). Chaired by Councillor Paul Truswell (Labour, Middleton Park), the board met several times towards the end of 2016 and at the beginning of 2017 to consider the matter.
When it met again earlier today (Wednesday, 27 September 2017), the board discussed a draft report which sets out its findings.2 At paragraph 15, the report concludes:
“…it is our view that the process was unsound from inception to final conclusion, due to a series of unhelpful circumstances and weaknesses, some of which would have been difficult to identify at the time, but have been recognised with the benefit of hindsight and self-reflection.”
In other words, it was a bad scheme, but no one at the council or Metro was to blame.
Commenting on the report, Councillor Blake focussed on future opportunities rather than past failures.3
References
- Inquiry launched into double debacle of Leeds Supertram and trolleybus schemes (Yorkshire Evening Post, 19 July 2016) ↩
- Draft Scrutiny Inquiry Transport for Leeds – Supertram, NGT and Beyond 27 October 2017 ↩
- Councillor Blake’s comment on ‘Transport for Leeds – Supertram, NGT and Beyond’ scrutiny inquiry draft report ↩
