PM gets Enterprise Zone off on right tracks in Nottingham
Cameron, Clegg and the council
Is it kiss and make up for David Cameron and Nottingham's Labour leaders?
They've had a running war of words over Coalition-ordered spending cuts and who is really being transparent about budgets. Now it seems to be all smiles... for the moment.
The Prime Minister and the Deputy PM Nick Clegg were in Nottingham to kick-start the first wave of Enterprise Zones, those designated areas to encourage the next generation of Dragons' Den entrepreneurs.
David Cameron's visit coincided with the government's blessing and substantial cash for the extension of the city's much heralded modern tram network.
The Prime Minister said the overall running costs of the two new lines to the south and west of the city will be shared: the government is putting in £35m, with the city council having to find another £14m.
Nottingham's fund raiser is its controversial work place parking levy. It's being introduced in April 2012.
Businesses with more than 10 employees will be charged initially £279 a year for each office parking space. Within three years, the levy will rise to £364. Most firms plan to pass on the cost to their employees who drive to work.
But council staff are losing their free parking perk a year ahead of the new levy and will have to pay for their car spaces within days... and that's causing anger. There's even talk of industrial action.
"We're very irate about it," says Chris Needham of the GMB union.
"Above all, it's the unfairness of low paid workers being used as guinea pigs and having to pay 2.1% of their earnings even before this parking levy becomes official."
But the Labour politician in charge of Nottingham's transport policy, Councillor Jane Urquhart, says don't blame the tram scheme... and points to the impact of the Coalition's spending cuts on local government.
"The reason we are bringing it in a year early is because of the difficult financial circumstances the council's facing. We weighed up the options between making more people redundant or whether this charge could be a better way to avoid cutting jobs," she told me.
Nottingham University is one of the city's largest public sector employers... with 6,500 on its payroll. Its parking levy has been estimated at £3/4m.
Those clever academic brains have come up with a parking levy charge that's based on the size of your pay packet and car engine.
Says the university's Pro Vice-chancellor Alan Dodson: "A member of the staff on the lowest salary driving a 'greener' engine car will pay about £50 a year and someone at the top end driving a gas-guzzler will pay nearly £500 a year. That's seems so much fairer."
Boots, the city's largest private employer, has been implacably opposed to the levy since it was first proposed 10 years ago. A site near its huge factory complex is to be one of the government's new Enterprise Zones.
Boots maintains the levy is a tax on business and won't necessarily encourage the individual car user to use public transport instead.
The Conservatives in Nottingham agree, and with city council elections this May, the Tories are campaigning to scrap the levy.
"We are fighting for every single job out there," says Cllr Andrew Price, the leader of the
Conservative group on Nottingham City Council.
"Our city's got limited amounts of land and new businesses might be tempted to set up just outside the city boundary to avoid paying the parking levy. That will be a loss to the city and a cost to hard pressed council tax payers."
The Chancellor talked of his budget driving the economy ahead. Nottingham's ambitious tram project is seen by Labour as key to that economic revival locally.
The Lib Dems too say the levy is the only practical way of cushioning its cost. The tram network now carries an estimated 10 million passenger journeys each year. The city has been applauded internationally for its integrated transport thinking. But it's the motorists through the work place parking levy who'll have to pay for most it.
Says Jane Urquhart: "The government is willing to invest a very large sum of money in Nottingham, and in Nottingham's future, but we think for our contribution, the levy is the way ahead. It's crucial for the tram."
From June, like a modern Domesday Book, the process starts of finding out where and how many office parking space will require registering with the city council.
Like the tram, the levy's arrival is unlikely to be late.
Hello. My name is John Hess. I'm the BBC's Political Editor for the East Midlands and this blog will offer my musings on the political scene from Westminster to closer to home. 
