Nottinghamshire County Council has announced to sell off the iconic Home Brewery building in Arnold as it’s “unfit for purpose”The sale is part of a major shake-up of council-owned buildings around Nottinghamshire – which has now been approved.
A new “iconic” building is also being planned next to the River Trent in West Bridgford, with £2.4m being set aside to pay for the construction, which would be built next to the existing County Hall.
In a debate on the issue on March 20, Labour councillors said they supported the plan in principle, but there was not enough detail for them to support it.
Concerns were also raised the project could run over budget as building costs are not yet known because the designs have not yet been drawn up. There are also no exact time frames yet.
The council hopes the scheme could save money in two ways; ongoing repair costs to older buildings would not have to be paid and new funds would be raised through the sale of buildings, such as the Home Brewery building.
Councillor Kay Cutts, the leader of the council, said as well as saving money, the scheme would help improve services by ensuring council staff were working in more suitable surroundings.
“Our plans mean that we will vacate buildings we rent and move into fit-for-purpose buildings that we own, reducing our overheads and annual running costs by using the latest green technology,” she said.
Councillor Kate Foale, who Beeston Central and Rylands for Labour, said: “This is extremely ambitious, which is good, but I just wonder, because it’s a multi-agency hub, if any other agencies are going to contribute to the cost of it.
“Another concerns is where will the staff go, because already staff are saying ‘where will we go to?’
“Schemes like this never cost less than you think they’re going to, and I worry we may get a situation where you are coming back saying ‘we need a lot more money.’ A lot of this is high-risk, and there seems to be no plan B.”
Contradictory in their comments. “The council hopes the scheme could save money in two ways; ongoing repair costs to older buildings would not have to be paid and new funds would be raised through the sale of buildings, such as the Home Brewery building”
“Our plans mean that we will vacate buildings we rent and move into fit-for-purpose buildings that we own, reducing our overheads and annual running costs by using the latest green technology,” she said. She also commented:
Taking about owned properties raising money, then about getting rid of rental properties , happy to waste millions of taxpayers money. rubbish, rubbish ,rubbish