Opposition members of Nottinghamshire County Council have called on the authority to scrap plans for new offices and to invest the money in fixing roads. The Independent Alliance, which is the joint opposition at the county council along with Labour, has proposed amendments to the authority's budget plans for the next financial year.
The budget plans were unveiled earlier this year and are due to come into effect from April, with one of the major plans being a council tax rise of 4.84%. But at a full council meeting on Thursday (February 9), the Independent Alliance will call for major changes to the current plans.
In particular, the group is calling for an extra £20.5 million to spent on Nottinghamshire's roads over the next financial year. The Independent Alliance says this would be funded by using an estimated £9 million of approved highways reserve funding, and by cancelling plans for Nottinghamshire County Council to build a new office on the Top Wighay development.
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Outline planning permission was granted in April 2021 for the Top Wighay development near Hucknall, with proposals for the village including 800 homes and a new primary school. Nottinghamshire County Council says the new village is expected to boost the economy by £873 million over 10 years.
One of the key elements to the development was for new county council offices at Top Wighay. Plans were even mooted for the county council to vacate its County Hall headquarters and relocate some services to the new Top Wighay building, though the authority has stressed no decision has been made on the future of County Hall.
Councillor Lee Waters, an Ashfield Independent councillor for Hucknall South, will be seconding the motion to amend the budget at Thursday's meeting. Speaking about the Top Wighay plans, he said: "In every part of Nottinghamshire, residents tell us that the state of our highways is not good enough.
"We will make sure that this huge funding boost is fair and equitable across our county. We have told Conservative bosses time and time again that we don't need new council offices at Top Wighay Farm near Hucknall.
"Since coronavirus, working habits have changed forever yet the County Council think it's a good idea to build new offices anyway. For me, a balanced, legal budget which fixes our broken roads and pavements is a no brainer."
A total of £15.7 million has currently been allocated for the development of the Top Wighay offices, but the Independent Alliance is calling for the project to be scrapped given that no contracts have yet been signed. The group estimates that this would lead to an "abortive cost" of £4.2 million, leaving £11.5 million left over.
Along with the £9 million in highways reserve funding, the group therefore says £20.5 million would be invested in roads next year and that this would be split evenly across Nottinghamshire. Independent Bingham East councillor Francis Purdue-Horan said: "It is a legal budget, deliverable and will paid for by scrapping a new office block we don't need and bringing forward spending.
"It will be fairly allocated and deals with the biggest problem that residents get in touch with us about. Ask anybody what they think about the state of our broken roads and pavements and they’ll tell you they are diabolical."
Councillor Keith Girling, the Cabinet Member for Economic Development and Asset Management at Nottinghamshire County Council, previously told Nottinghamshire Live about the need for the Top Wighay offices by saying: "For me it's about bringing the council's services here, which is really important. This is an area that uses a lot of council services and so if we can bring it to the heart of where it's required, that's a good thing.
"A lot of services are delivered at the home, but some are not and people need to be able to go somewhere. This is somewhere on their doorstep where they can go and get the information or the service that they require."
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