Edinburgh Tram (Line One) Bill Committee, 30 Jun 2004

Meeting date: Wednesday, June 30, 2004

Official Report 64KB pdf

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Items in Private

Item 4 is to consider whether to take items 5, 6 and 7 in private. As this is our first meeting, I will explain why we are keen to take those items in private. Item 5 is to seek the committee's agreement on a number of matters, not the least of which is the appointment of an adviser. It is customary for committees to consider the relative merits of different candidates in private. Item 6 is to consider our preliminary approach to evidence gathering. The committee's views will be sought on issues such as the commissioning of external research and tenders, which are covered in the paper on the issue. Again, it is customary to consider such issues in private.

Item 7, which is interesting, is about taking a view on the adequacy of the environmental statement, following a report from Bond Pearce Ltd, which has been appointed as consultant. We will make that report public, but at this stage it would be useful for members to reflect on the background and consider the issue. Following the meeting, we will publish our decisions in the minutes and the relevant papers.

I am not going to cause trouble in this committee, because it is not the European and External Relations Committee—

You had better not—not at the first meeting.

There is a will to try to minimise the holding of committees in private session. I agree that we should take items 5 and 6 in private, but issues might arise on item 7—which is on the Bond Pearce paper—that might well be of interest to members of the public. I would certainly have no objection to discussing item 7 openly. That might be a reasonable move.

I have considered that point because there is a lot of interest in the environmental statement. We agreed to publish the report to make it widely available and to publish any decisions that the committee arrives at. We do not intend to go through the statement chapter and verse and make substantive decisions, which is why I agreed that the item could be taken in private. I wanted to give members an opportunity to reflect on the report, but also to ensure that all the information is put into the public domain to ensure that the dialogue that the promoter and the objectors will want to have takes place and is guided by some of the work in the environmental statement.

I hope that we will decide later to consider further work on particular sections of the environmental statement. It would be useful to have such dialogue in private, but I take Phil Gallie's point about ensuring that as much information as possible is put into the public domain. We will publish on that basis.

That is fair, convener. I agree that we must have a discussion in private to sort out our rules of engagement and so on. We need to find our centre of gravity. Provided that the private sessions are kept to a minimum, I can live with that.

I will not press the issue. I was simply airing my view.

Right. We now move into private session.

Meeting continued in private until 10:21.