The tram: why it's far from a done deal

Nottingham City Council was understandably pleased to get the go-ahead to buy the land necessary for new tram lines and build them.
Just one, not-very-small problem: it hasn't got the money yet.
You may have seen signs in the past few days of tension between the council and Boots, which is implacably opposed to the idea that the tram should be part-funded by a Workplace Parking Levy (it has a rather large car park, you see).
But the problem does not lie in the car park of a big Nottingham business.
It's at Whitehall in the shape of the Department for Transport and the Gods of the Treasury.
The DfT has to fund three-quarters of the bill and some of the noises coming out of London suggests that this make-or-break part of the whole tram package is far from a done deal.
This is the Department, remember, led by Notts MP Geoff Hoon, a Cabinet Minister who has never shied away from unpopular political decisions.
Indeed, only a few weeks ago, he left Derby in uproar when a gargantuan rail contract was awarded not to Derby-based train-maker Bombardier but a Japanese-led consortium.
Because of his status as a Notts MP, Mr Hoon has distanced himself from tram decision-making.
But he will know exactly which way the wind is blowing.
Put yourself in the Government's position: it is in a desperate financial fix because of the recession and many of the projects which it had unofficially given the nod to are now looking less certain.
There is also a General Election looming ominously on the horizon, a political event which is likely to lead to all sorts of short-term policy compromises as Labour seeks to hold on to power.
There has to be concern that a decision on the funding is not imminent when an election is getting nearer.
Not just because it means the City Council must press its case that much harder, but because if Labour lose an incoming Tory Government could well put the brakes on large-scale spending.
The tram yesterday cleared one hurdle. It may still have a political mountain to climb.