Edinburgh Tram Inquiry Office Use Only Witness Name: LESLEY HINDS Dated: 20 July 2017 THE EDINBURGH TRAM INQUIRY Witness Statement of Lesley Hinds Introduction 1. My full name is Lesley Hinds. I am aged 60, my date of birth being - My contact details are known to the Edinburgh Tram Inquiry (In­ quiry). 2. My current occupation is as a city councillor on the City of Edinburgh Council (CEC or Council) When interviewed in December 2016. I was a councillor throughout the entire period of the Edinburgh Tram Project (ETP) from 2003 to 2012. My main duties and responsibilities were: 2.1. As a councillor (throughout the whole period); 2.2. As Lord Provost of Edinburgh from 2003 to 2007; and I 2.3. As Transport Spokesperson for the Labour Group on the Council i from 2011 - 2012; and 2.4. As Labour Transport Convenor from mid-2012-2017. My background 3. My curriculum vitae is attached as an annex to this statement. My history as a councillor 4. I have been a councillor for over 32 years. When interviewed on Decem­ ber 2016 have been a Labour councillor representing lnverleith from 1984 Page 1 of 181 TRI00000099_C _0001 onwards and currently represent the lnverleith Ward (though its bounda­ ries have changed over time). I was Council Leader for a period as well for a period prior to 2003. 5. There have been a number of changes in the political group which holds power (which I refer to as the Administration) on the CEC in the time in which I have sat as a councillor: 5.1. Prior to 1984, the Conservatives were the dominant group; 5.2. The Labour Group then formed the Administration of the Council for the period including between 2003 and 2007; 5.3. A coalition made up of the Scottish Liberal Democrats (SLD) and Scottish National Party (SNP) formed the Administration between 2007 and 2012; and 5.4. Following the 2012 local government elections, power has been held by a Labour and SNP coalition. 6. I was a Board member of a number of organisations, on behalf of the Council, including CEC Holdings Ltd, Transform Scotland, Transport for Edinburgh Ltd, North Edinburgh Arts, One City Trust, Chair, of Edinburgh International Conference Centre (EICC) and Edinburgh Community Solar Co-operative. Over 33 years I have held positions including chairs of many Boards and community organisations. Currently I am Chair of Edin­ burgh Community Solar Co-operative and Edinburgh Mela. A Board mem­ ber of North Edinburgh Arts and One City Trust. Labour Administration (up to 2007) 7. I was part of the Labour Administration involved in the start of the ETP from around 2003 up to 2007. I was Lord Provost of Edinburgh between 2003 and 2007. Page 2 of 181 TRI00000099_C_0002 8. The Lord Provost is chosen at the Council meeting by Councillors. Each group has a Group Leader. The leader of the group with the largest num­ ber of councillor normally becomes the Leader of the Council (also known as the Council Leader) who is the political head of the Council. The Lord Provost is the civic /ceremonial head of the Council. 9. During the period from 2003 to 2007, the Council Leader was a Labour Councillor, Donald Anderson. 10. As a Councillor in the lnverlieth ward, which is located in North Edinburgh area, I was supportive of Line 1b in North Edinburgh. The Granton Water­ front was key for the regeneration of north Edinburgh in terms of jobs, homes, environment and investment. Public Transport infrastructure was essential for the success of the Waterfront. I discuss this later in this statement (at paragraph 171 below). System of government 11. During this period (2003 to 2007) there was an executive system running the Council. In this system, instead of having separate committees which dealt with individual issues like transport or education, there was an Exec­ utive Strategy Group (Executive). This was made up of councillors, from the Administration, who were the main portfolio holders and issues would come to them to make a decision. 12. Instead of having committees making decisions, which could be referred to the meetings of the Full Council, you would have an Executive that took strategic decisions and then you would have Scrutiny Panels underneath that executive setup. 13. There was also a scrutiny process where other councillors sat on a Scruti­ ny Committee. Councillors could scrutinise some of the decision-making and could refer issues up to that Executive/Council if there were sufficient votes. Page 3 of 181 TRI00000099_C_0003 14. I believe Councillor Andrew Burns, of Labour, was the executive member who held the portfolio for transport matters for this period (Executive Member for Transport). I did not occupy any of the executive portfolios dur­ ing this time due to my role as Lord Provost. Role as Lord Provost 15. My role as Lord Provost was as the civic head of the Council and also in­ volved chairing Council meetings (including casting deciding votes in the case of a tie). As Councillor for lnverleith I would get involved with local, ward issues. I still attended Labour Group meetings and briefings but I was not a member of the executive group during this time. 16. Attending Labour Group meetings was sometimes a challenge because of the Lord Provost's schedule, However, I made sure that I went to Labour Group meetings and any briefings so that I kept up to date with the issues. 17. There was a close relationship between the Lord Provost (the civic head of the CEC) and the Leader of the Council (the political head) because the Lord Provost was responsible for chairing Full Council meetings and mak­ ing those Council meetings facilitate policy decisions. The Council Leader at this time was Donald Anderson and I had a very good working relation­ ship with him. We met on a regular basis to discuss certain issues and to identify issues that were coming up to the Council. We also discussed who had responsibility for the various project and policies that were being pro­ gressed. 18. In terms of the interactions and relationships of the Lord Provost with the Council Officers, the Lord Provost is still an individual councillor, with a ward to represent so there is interaction on that level. There are also cer­ tain projects that the Lord Provost will be involved with. For example, as Lord Provost, I chaired the Edinburgh Tattoo Board and the International Page 4 of 181 TRI00000099_C_0004 Festival organisation. These are large responsibilities and there was a lot of interaction with CEC Officers relating to those. 19. In preparation for a Full Council meeting, the Lord Provost as chair would have an interface with Council Officers in going through the agenda, re­ viewing deputations (groups of people coming to address the Council) and ensuring the smooth running of Council meetings. In opposition (2007 - 2012) 20. A coalition of the SLD and SNP came to power after the 2012 local gov­ ernment elections. Councillor Jenny Dawe (SLD) became the Council Leader and Councillor Steve Cardownie (SNP) became the Deputy Leader of the Council (Deputy Leader). 21. When the SLD and SNP came into power in 2007, they decided they wanted to change the Council structure from an executive system back to a committee system. They had always been against the executive system and scrutiny panels. This change began in 2007 but took a little time to implement as it would have required changes to the Council's Standing Orders (the Council's internal rules of procedure). 22. The Administration appointed the Convenors/Vice Conveners of each committee and those convenors functioned as the Administration's key person on the issues by the committee's remit. For instance, Councillor Gordon Mackenzie (SLD) was the Transport Convenor for a period. Each of the opposition groups would also have spokespeople whose responsi­ bility it was to cover different policy areas. 23. For most of my time in opposition, I was the Labour Health & Social Care Spokesperson (2007 -2011). In the final year of the SLD/SNP Administra­ tion (2011 to 2012), I became the Labour Spokesperson on Transport. Be­ cause of the way in which the ETP was going, I wanted to be more in­ volved and so sought to be the Transport Spokesperson. This led to me Page 5 of 181 TRI00000099_C_0005 sitting on the Transport, Infrastructure and Environment Committee (TIEC) from 2011 onwards. 24. Prior to 2011, I did not attend the TIEC as a member. I would have occa­ sionally gone to that committee to ask it to consider a ward issue. On those occasions I would have been marked as 'also present' (see, for in­ stance CEC01241182). This meant I was just there to speak to that partic­ ular point. I did not attend the whole meeting and did not have any vote on committee business. 25. I sat on the Policy & Strategy Committee (PSC) from 2007 onwards as well. This committee consists of all of the convenors of other committees and senior councillors from different political groups. It is chaired by the Council Leader who, during this period, was Jenny Dawe (SLD). The current Administration (2012 - present) 26. I have been the convenor of the TIEC (generally known as the Transport Convenor) from mid-2012 to the present day. 27. This role meant that I was involved in the later part of the ETP. The revised budget and timetable had been agreed prior to 2012 but both the CEC Chief Executive (Sue Bruce) and I were heavily involved in delivering the revised project on budget and on time.