Nottinghamshire’s set to get an extra £58 million to tackle its crumbling roads but officials say it could come at the cost of other services.
Council documents released ahead of the cabinet meeting on Thursday (April 23) outline the authority’s plans for its second phase of funding for Nottinghamshire’s roads.
Back in March 2026, the Reform-led council announced it would be spending a ‘game-changing’ £122.5 million into the county’s road network in 2026/27 as part of phase one, aiming to resurface and patch around 16 percent of roads.
Now, its cabinet is set to approve an extra £58.75 million for 2026/27, keeping the year’s total spend on roads “the largest investment ever made” in Nottinghamshire’s highways, at £181.25 million.
The boosts of cash comes after a September 2025 survey found about 38 percent of the county’s roads in ‘poor condition’, along with more than half of all road marking being in ‘poor’ or ‘very poor’ condition.
But cabinet papers say the authority will need to consider ‘de-prioritising’ other services, activities and schemes across the council if looming money pressures come to fruition.
Within the second wave of money, £15 million of it will be funded from ‘additional borrowing’. When councils borrow money, taxpayer cash is often spent on the interest incurred when paying it off.
The County Council says it does not have the money for this additional debt, and this budget pressure, from its existing budgets, where it will be managed through its ‘annual budget’ process.
Nottinghamshire County Council is also relying on the East Midlands Combined County Authority (EMCCA) to financially support its investment in the roads by ‘accelerating’ its highway money pots for the council, but documents show this is not yet guaranteed.
To mitigate these cash pressures, a statement in council documents reads: “The council will need to consider de-prioritising other services/activities/schemes across the council which would otherwise be a competing demand on the council’s finite financial resources.
“In plain English terms, if fixing roads is the top priority, other things cannot also be.”
The EMCCA was contacted to confirm its stance on speeding up the cash it gives to the County Council for the highways network. EMCCA refused to provide comment.
In a statement, council leader Mick Barton (Ref) said: “This record-breaking investment is unprecedented and no other council in the country has set aside such levels of funding to improve its roads.
“This is due to the efforts of colleagues and officers here at Nottinghamshire County Council, who have worked tirelessly to put together an investment package using funding from within our own reserves and EMCCA.
“I said we would bring in the money to ensure we have roads we will be proud to drive on, and that hard work is certainly paying off.
“However, this is only the start. We will carry on knocking on the doors of those in Government to make sure we can secure sustained long-term funding for our highways network, which is set out in our six-point plan.”
Both phases of spending should lead to the authority’s highways works backlog being reduced by nearly £100 million, from its peak of £414 million to an estimated £317 million, the council says.
The LDRS asked the authority to clarify what it means by potentially ‘de-prioritising’ other services and areas if money pressures remain. The authority did not provide comment by the time of publication.
About 45 percent of the initial £122.5 million money pot has come from the EMCCA, with the rest provided by the council through money raised in council tax and secured grants.
