Tram Trains for Edinburgh (TTfE) public meeting last October at Edinburgh's City Chambers
Written by Midlothian View Reporter, Liam Eunson
With the SNP party announcing in their manifesto that they will fund a study of a new tram-train route in the capital if they win the election, Edinburgh campaign group Tram Trains for Edinburgh (TTfE) have backed the party’s commitment, calling the decision a significant development in their campaign.
Started in August 2025, the campaign group has been calling on local authorities to consider reintroducing the Edinburgh South Suburban Railway line for public use and linking it to the already exciting tram lines and planned expansion of Edinburgh’s tram system, using vehicles named tram trains to smoothly adapt to various rail types.
Founded to ‘promote the construction and use of public transport in Edinburgh by the use of tram-train technology and to integrate such developments with the existing tram and/or rail networks’, the group was partly formed in response to an extensive study from students at Heriot-Watt University which received significant public interest.
The proposed plans could see a potential expansion into Midlothian and East Lothian, enabling travel beyond the cities boundaries.
In their manifesto, the SNP party announced that they will fund a new study into the potential for tram-trains in Edinburgh, following growing interest in the concept over the past years. The manifesto commitment comes as the Edinburgh Council’s SNP group came out earlier this month in favour of building the southern portion of the city’s new planned tram line.
The concept has received strong support outside of parliament with many Edinburgh councillors backing the plans. Attending a TTfE public meeting last October, Councillor Tim Pogson has been a strong supporter of the concept, alongside SNP councillor and candidate for Edinburgh Eastern, Musselburgh and Tranent Kate Campbell who said a tram-train line could ‘transform’ the city.
Tram Trains for Edinburgh’s Chair, Rob Falcon, welcomed the announcement, describing the study as ‘super helpful’ for their fight for improved transport.
He added: “With all the caveats that go with the middle of an election campaign, it is nevertheless significant that the City Council’s SNP group has come out more clearly in favour of the city’s tram extension.
“However, that the SNP group are clearly supporting the southern tram extension to the Bioquarter, should be seen as a major step forward. As the group says, this route will have a major regional impact by enabling journeys beyond the city boundary into Midlothian and East Lothian.
“It’s also hard not to argue that the project would be easier to deliver – both practically and financially – by being done in smaller sections. We now need the SNP to stick to that position, whilst funds are sought and feasibility studies written – and to win support from their colleagues at the Scottish government.
“Edinburgh needs to get on with developing a mass transit solution to its congestion problems – if not, the economic dynamism of the region risks being undermined.”
Rob Falcon also explained that some members of the SNP group within Edinburgh Council ‘complain that the route takes away a well used active travel path’, adding that many would question this point of view as ‘active travel should be encouraged but this seems an absolutist position when the Council has proposed a viable proposal for trams, cyclists and walkers to share the route’.
This issue is similar to opposition against the Edinburgh tram northern leg expansion to Granton with many residents and politicians concerned about losing the Roseburn path.
The party manifesto said the new tram line should not use the Roseburn Path for its northern leg, but only specified that an ‘alternative route’ should be found.
HMRC officers on arrest operation
Written by Midlothian View Reporter, Liam Eunson
The bosses of a corrupt payroll company that stole millions of pounds of VAT have been jailed for more than 22 years.
West Lothian-based Linear Services handled payroll for 27 employment agencies but didn’t hand over VAT they owed to HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) during a two-year fraud.
Graeme Cullen, Leslie Thompson, Graham Newall and Martin Lang ran the firm that charged VAT on invoices totalling £8.8 million between 2015 and 2017. The court heard the gang lived extravagant lifestyles with huge amounts of money spent on expensive homes, holidays, diamonds and even gold bullion.
Thompson is already serving a six-year sentence for his role in an elaborate multi-million-pound tax fraud that led to convictions for a network of 20 corrupt company directors.
The 63-year-old, from Bathgate, West Lothian, was jailed in October, while his wife Beverley was handed a two-year suspended sentence for her role in the elaborate scam.
The gang were caught following a lengthy investigation by HMRC’s Fraud Investigation Service, who worked alongside partners from Police Scotland’s Specialist Crime Division.
Lang, 68, pleaded guilty on 30 January. Cullen, 54, Thompson, 63, and Newall, 49, were sentenced on 21 April after an eight-week trial at Glasgow High Court.
HMRC urges all businesses to carry out meaningful due diligence on any supply of services and anyone with any information about any type of tax fraud can report it to HMRC on GOV.UK.
Mavisbank house in Midlothian is considered Scotland's most 'at risk' building
Written by Local Democracy Reporter, Marie Sharp
A bid to create a new access to allow restoration work to begin on a Scottish mansion has been backed by national conservation bosses.
The Landmark Trust is ready to start work on Mavisbank House, Loanhead, after receiving permission to begin repairs, however it still needs the go ahead to create a new access route which involves removing more than 80 trees.
Now Historic Environment Scotland have backed the proposed new driveway saying the loss of the trees from what was described as the community’s ‘only conservation area’ is outweighed by the important work to save the building.
Midlothian councillors delayed a decision on granting approval for the access route at a meeting earlier this year amid concern about its impact on the surrounding countryside.
They deferred a decision on approving the route to allow for more information about alternative options to be brought to them.
However the Landmark Trust, which has received a £5.3million grant to help begin the work on the house, says it has spent years looking into the best access route for the house whose original driveways have been sold off to private landowners.
And it said pushing forward with its two phase project to rescue and restore the house relied on the drive getting approval.
Councillors will take a fresh look at the access route at a planning committee meeting next week when they will hear Historic Environment Scotland has not objected to the plans despite advising it will have ‘significant physical and visual impacts on the Mavisbank Inventory site’.
Instead a report by officers recommending approval of the driveway said that Historic Environment Scotland had noted that the work planned would enhance the settings of Mavisbank House itself.
They said: “Overall, Historic Environment Scotland weighed up the negative impacts on the inventory site against the positive conservation benefits to both the house and its designed landscape.
“They concluded that the proposed development is only acceptable because it is a crucial first step to allow the conservation and restoration of these internationally important heritage assets. Without that conservation benefit, the impacts would be unacceptable.”
Category A listed Mavisbank House was built in the early 18th century by celebrated Scottish architect William Adam as a summer residence for John Clerk of Penicuik, a leading figure of the Scottish Enlightenment, and signatory of the Act of Union (1707).
It is described as the first Palladian house in Scotland and pioneered a design which would be used by others to develop Edinburgh’s New Town a generation later.
In the 19th century Mavisbank became a ground-breaking mental hospital where reforming Doctor John Batty Tuke developed compassionate approaches to mental illness, including through exercise and gardening.
After the closure of the asylum, Mavisbank was sold and, following a major fire, demolition on safety grounds was ordered by the local authority in the mid-1980s. An emergency round-the-clock vigil was maintained by local volunteers until the decision could be halted.
Attempts to raise funds to repair the house were unsuccessful until the National Heritage Memorial Find agreed the £5.3million grant.
