TRANSPORT chiefs at Hampshire County Council are to re-open the debate with the government on a failed multi-million pound tram scheme.

The council will meet officials from the Department for Transport next month to ask why the plug was pulled on the light rail link between Fareham, Gosport and Portsmouth last year.

The council maintains its proposals were good value for money and has not ruled out attempting to win fresh support for a new tram development

It will warn the government that urgent action is needed to tackle traffic congestion in Gosport.

On Wednesday Alison Quant, the council's environment director, will appear before the House of Commons Transport Committee as part of its inquiry into the funding arrangements of major transport projects.

She is expected to tell MPs that the government's delay in coming to a decision on Hampshire's light rail scheme added to the uncertainty and costs of the project.

The tram link was granted formal approval in 2001 but in 2004 ministers said they were unhappy costs had reached £270m and ordered more work to be done. In 2005 support for the scheme was finally withdrawn.

The South Hampshire scheme, aimed at removing three million cars a year from the congested M27 and A32, was 14 years in the planning and had already cost taxpayers £10m.

The transport committee is studying proposals to boost local councils' powers to allow them to raise their own cash to fund major transport schemes in future. Chris Huhne, Liberal Democrat MP for Eastleigh, said reform of spending rules could not come soon enough.

He said: "Local authorities should have far more latitude to raise money for local projects.

"The top-down need to get everything approved and signed-off in Whitehall is crazy. Local authorities should have far more discretion to go ahead with these sorts of projects."

The inquiry will be completed by July and the committee's report published in the autumn.