Nottingham City Council's leader has promised that the city's public transport system will not be "diluted" by a £1.14 billion deal with the Government. An agreement was signed in August to create a new East Midlands combined authority which will cover people in Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire.
It will have an elected Mayor and more money will flow into both counties as a result. Powers will also be handed down to the new authority and Nottingham City Council's leader, Councillor David Mellen, says that this will include many decisions on local transport being made by it.
But at a meeting of the council's overview and scrutiny committee on Wednesday (October 12), Councillor Mellen said that he would make sure Nottingham's public transport system is protected when working with the new authority. He said: "What we don't want to do in the slightest is to dilute our very good public transport system in Nottingham.
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"There is money to be had in the devolution deal, we've just got to protect what we've got here, which is good." In the devolution deal, the Government acknowledges that transport services were already managed by the councils involved in the agreement.
It therefore says that all four councils involved (Nottingham City Council, Derby City Council, Nottinghamshire County Council and Derbyshire County Council), will work together on a "transition plan" for how services are improved. If agreement is reached, the new East Midlands Mayor and authority would become responsible for setting and delivering a transport strategy for the area.
This would include work on bus and tram networks, as well as on road infrastructure and cycling. The deal says that the new East Midlands authority will prepare a transport plan by March 2024, with £500,000 being provided by the Government to "accelerate" this work.
Councillor Mellen said that it might be "easy" to get around in Nottingham but said "it's not so easy if I wanted to get to Mansfield or the East Midlands Airport" and therefore acknowledged that there was a "desire" for transport decisions to be made more jointly across the region. A consultation is currently underway on the devolution deal, with Councillor Mellen saying that he expects Nottingham city councillors to ratify it in the new year.
The new East Midlands Mayor is expected to be elected for the first time in May 2024. Ben Bradley, Nottinghamshire County Council leader and Mansfield MP, has said that he would not rule out standing for the role himself.
The Government's summary of the devolution deal states: "The East Midlands devolution deal will unlock significant long-term funding and give local leaders greater freedom to decide how best to meet local needs and create new opportunities for the people who live and work there. The Government commits to using the platform of this deal to work with the [new East Midlands authority] in addressing key local challenges and opportunities, including the delivery of infrastructure and investment to build the transport network of the future."
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