Highlands and Islands MSP, Edward Mountain is calling for a full public inquiry to be launched to investigate the decisions and events which led to the closing of the Cairngorm Funicular Railway due to structural problems.
Edward Mountain MSP campaigned strongly for Audit Scotland to report on the failings at Cairngorm Mountain. This report was published last summer.
The MSP believes a full public inquiry is now required to answer the questions that fell outside of Audit Scotland’s original remit, such as where the responsibility lies for the construction failure of the funicular railway.
Edward Mountain MSP had made this call following an exchange of emails with the Chief Executive of Highlands and Islands Enterprise.
Edward Mountain MSP wrote:
“As you know I remain unconvinced that the management of the mountain was sufficiently robust and professional, which has without doubt lead to many of the issues we face today. Until this is bottomed out and fully understood we are in danger of repeating the errors that have been made before. I therefore will continue to press this.
“Following on from that, whilst I fully accept that the railway needs significant repairs, I can’t find the reasons for the construction failure. Was the funicular poorly constructed or was there a failure in the original design? Surely if the reason for the failure is not known there is no way that it can be repaired with confidence.”
Charlotte Wright, Chief Executive of HIE, replied:
“I appreciate your ongoing interest in Cairngorm. You are, of course, correct in highlighting that the information we have released to date, in the business case and other documentation, has focused largely on how best to solve the problems associated with the funicular, rather than the factors that caused them to arise.
“As I am sure you will appreciate, the difficulty we have is that we are currently pursuing a legal claim against the original contractor/design team for the funicular. We therefore need to take care to balance our desire for transparency regarding our decisions and actions at Cairngorm against the need to protect evidence that will play an important role in determining the outcome of these proceedings. Based on legal advice, we believe the public interest at this time is best served by HIE protecting our ability to present as strong a case as we are able to with regard to this claim.”
Charlotte Wright added that specialist engineer reports would be made available and would help to highlight the “full extent of the failures that affected the funicular and the factors that caused them.”
Edward Mountain MSP said:
“There’s still too many unanswered questions from HIE and the SNP Government as to who and what was responsible for the funicular railway’s construction failures.
“There remains a lack of transparency over what went wrong at Cairngorm Mountain. The public deserve to know what went on and it’s time to end the secrecy.
“That’s why we need a public inquiry which is given a far wider remit to investigate if the funicular railway was poorly maintained, or poorly constructed or if there were faults in the original design.
“Badenoch and Strathspey needs Cairngorm Mountain to be a successful business all year round and that is why I support the repairing of the funicular railway.
“However, we need to know if the funicular is being repaired with confidence and we need assurances that we won’t see a repeat of the previous construction failure. This is why a public inquiry is essential.”
