THE running of the entire public transport system in the Scottish capital is under review after the implosion of the board at Lothian Buses.
A leaked letter by Edinburgh City Council director of corporate governance finance reveals a "phased approach to resolve the challenges of the dysfunctional executive director team and secure leadership and control" is being put in place at the troubled bus firm.
The correspondence from Alastair McLean reveals the bus board overhaul has prompted a wider "review of governance" of Transport for Edinburgh, which encompasses Edinburgh Trams and Lothian Buses.
Lothian Buses has been mired in an embarrassing boardroom dispute among four directors - chief executive Ian Craig and directors Bill Devlin, Bill Campbell and Norman Strachan.
The tussle ended with allegations made against Mr Craig, but an investigation cleared him of any wrongdoing.
Part of the overhaul is to introduce new non-executive director positions on Transport for Edinburgh's boards as it moves to stabilise management of the bus firm.
A new system of meetings between the bus and tram boards is being planned to foster "strong liaison" between directors of both those and the umbrella firm.
It is thought this will also help prevent isolated disputes descending to a damaging level.
The four directors, who each earned between £190,000 and £270,000 in 2013, have agreed handshake deals with two years' notice.
The first steps in the overhaul of the top flight at the Edinburgh City Council-owned bus company are already in place, with an interim chairman, Tony Depledge and general manager, Jim McFarlane.
A new vice chairman, John Martin, is also appointed to the board.
A recruitment process is now under way for non-executive director positions on the Transport for Edinburgh, Lothian Buses and Edinburgh Trams boards.
The transport group is also recruiting a non-executive chair for Lothian Buses and a separate non-executive chair for Edinburgh Trams.
The bus company came under the spotlight again last week after diary entries obtained under Freedom of Information revealed the four directors accepted hospitality from Volvo on seven occasions in just over a year as it sealed two consignments of a total of 45 new green buses with £10 million-plus.
Although the practice is normal and no wrongdoing by either suppliers or directors was suggested, Lothian Buses moved to tighten up its protocol on transparency after it was revealed.
The firm said it has since updated its code of conduct and changed its policy to ensure all gifts and hospitality over £100 are recorded, instead of a previous £300 threshold that was in place prior to January.
A spokesman for Lothian Buses said: "Interim management arrangements are in now place and working well.
"Recent passenger satisfaction rates were among the highest in the country and the company is performing well against a range of other important measures.
"The priority now is to maintain this level of performance and to ensure our passengers get the best possible service."
Lesley Hinds, Edinburgh City Council's transport chair, said: "Edinburgh has much to shout about with a highly rated publicly owned bus company, a growing international airport, quality rail links and, of course, a new tram system with genuine potential for expansion.
"Transport for Edinburgh's vision is to provide a seamless a public transport offer, combining Lothian Buses and Edinburgh Trams, to drive the future success of the city.
"We're looking for people to join us on our boards to help us achieve that vision."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.Â
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.Â
That is invaluable.Â
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article