Council bosses deny shredding controversial tram documents

STV

Council bosses have denied shredding important documents about the controversial Edinburgh trams project.

A response to a Freedom of Information request said details dating back to 2007 could not be provided because the council’s chief executive’s correspondence was only kept for a year.

Diaries from 2007 and 2008 were no longer held and correspondence to and from TIE was only kept for three years.

The City of Edinburgh Council’s Labour group had put in the request for “all information the council holds” on the decision to remove Transport Scotland officials from the trams board in 2007.

But the request was turned down on the grounds “the information requested is no longer held”.

Labour group leader Andrew Burns accused the council of shredding the documents.

But on Thursday they denied this, saying they were in the process of looking for the documents and were confident most of them would be found.

Alastair Maclean, Director of Corporate Governance, said: "The FOI response was not entirely accurate and we have contacted the applicant with an apology, together with a commitment to review the relevant request and issue a correction as soon as possible.

"We wholeheartedly refute any suggestion that any information is being deliberately destroyed in order to thwart any public inquiry. Indeed, the council has already backed calls for an inquiry and we are currently gathering all relevant information to ensure that we can cooperate fully with this process. In particular, tie’s records relating to the project are currently in the process of being migrated over to the council.

"Each council department has historically operated different document retention policies in line with their different business activities and it is has been up to each department to comply with these. However, through a current review of governance arrangements and in line with the upcoming implementation of the Public Records (Scotland) Act 2011, we are seeking to consolidate our record management procedures and this process is already well underway."