THE former boss of Edinburgh Trams quit his job in anger over the “outrageous” spying carried out against his colleagues by rival transport firm Lothian Buses.

According to his leaked resignation letter, Tom Norris left his £80,000 a year post last year over the bus company’s covert monitoring of staff.

He also wrote it was “extraordinary” the individual behind the snooping had not been fired and hit out at the “gross mishandling” of the scandal.

Edinburgh Trams and Lothian Buses are separate companies, but they share IT, media relations and human resources and are ultimately owned by the city council.

Although the firms work in partnership, figures in Lothian Buses have been sceptical of the trams project and the effect it may have on their own organisation.

This newspaper revealed last week that a Lothian Buses employee had spied on directors of the bus firm and the management team at Edinburgh Trams.

It is understood a computer program called ‘Meraki’ was used, over a six-month period in 2014, to take screen-grabs of whatever was on the computer screen of targeted individuals.

A whistleblower exposed the wrongdoing, triggering internal and external investigations and the culprit was given a warning. The surveillance was hushed up from the public and local councillors.

Norris was the director and general manager of Edinburgh Trams who was credited with turning around the troubled £1bn project.

He quit in the summer of last year and his departure to train operator Abellio was considered to be a huge loss to the firm.

In a blistering letter to Lothian Buses and the council in June 2015, which had been kept under wraps, he cited the “covert monitoring of IT equipment” as the key reason for his resignation.

During the period of surveillance in 2014, a civil war was taking place between the then chief executive of Lothian Buses, Ian Craig, and other senior figures at LB. Craig eventually left the company.

Although Edinburgh Trams staff were victims of the surveillance, Norris wrote that allies of Craig at Lothian Buses were monitored during the period of internal tension: “Key senior staff who could be perceived as being close to the chief executive were the majority of the people targeted.

He added: “As a result, I think the motives of the individual [who carried out the spying] are dishonest and the report conclusions around this are incomplete.”

On the outcome of the disciplinary probe, Norris was scathing: “Given the serious reputational, legal and trust issues around this case I find it extraordinary the employee’s contract was not terminated for such a serious offence.”

He continued: “I believe there has been gross mishandling of this case post the investigation, and I have significant questions about the business ethics Lothian Buses have adopted regarding this matter.

“In the 6 months since the case was first reported, no meaningful action has been taken to prevent this happening again. In fact, those responsible could be partaking in the same activities as I write this letter.”

He added: “To be clear, mismanagement of this case was a central part of the decision-making that lead [sic] me to resign.”

Norris also claimed the Lothian Buses IT department had “consistently and actively underperformed” and blasted: “Edinburgh Trams are treated with contempt by this department through both actions and behaviours.”

He ended his letter by stating: “The above points make me question whether Lothian Buses is a fit and proper organisation to supply Edinburgh Trams with a safe IT system where employees can be free of covert monitoring and digital harassment”.

Norris described the entire episode as an “an outrageous breach of IT security and staff privacy” signing-off with: “Had I been continuing in post, I would be recommending to the Edinburgh Trams board an immediate move of IT delivery from Lothian Buses to another provider.”

A spokesperson for Edinburgh Trams said: “We are satisfied that this issue was fully dealt with at the time and now consider the matter closed.”

A Lothian Buses spokesperson: “An internal issue was raised over a year ago that was investigated and dealt with fully in line with our HR procedures. As part of this, actions were taken in respect of employee roles and responsibilities, and internal IT security protocol was strengthened in line with industry best practice standards.”

Norris declined to be drawn on the letter.