NINE of the 29 staff left at Edinburgh's tram delivery firm, Tie, are due to take voluntary redundancy within four weeks, with redundancy costs topping £2 million.

The latest cull was confirmed yesterday as it emerged that Turner & Townsend, the consultancy firm appointed to take over as project manager, will be paid £2.8m for its services. The figure – equal to £8000 a day – does not include paying Transport Scotland for its role in managing the project.

Payments to the 20 staff due to leave Tie will cost City of Edinburgh Council £800,000, taking the total redundancy payments to £2.1m. However, that does not include payments to Richard Jeffrey, Tie’s former chief executive, who was reported to have walked away with around £150,000 earlier this year.

Sue Bruce, the council’s chief executive, said the cost of employing Turner and Townsend and paying Transport Scotland for its services was lower than the running costs of Tie.

She said: “The idea was that, in winding down Tie, it would put control back to the council and see if we could save on any costs. The idea was that, if there were any [staff] skills that we needed then we would keep these, otherwise we would let them go.”

Of the nine staff not being given redundancy deals, five are expected to join T&T, and four are due to get jobs with the council.