A group of independent councillors on Nottinghamshire County Council say they have put together a legal, fully costed budget amendment that could deliver an extra £20m to tackle the county’s ‘broken’ roads and pavements over the next two years.
The Independent Alliance opposition group say the extra cash could be raised by borrowing the money from the sale of land around Toton Station – which is not needed after HS2 was cancelled. Toton Station was last valued for asset value purposes in April 2023 at £23m
The Independent Alliance revealed their plan would result in each borough and district in Notts receiving £5.2m for road repairs, each year for the next two years.
The money would be in addition to the cash being offered by the Government to be spent on fixing road damage caused by Storm Babet.
If agreed, at the annual budget meeting, the group claim it will represent the biggest ever amount of money spent on fixing the county’s broken roads and pavements in two consecutive years.
The amendment will moved by the Independent Alliance opposition group leader Councillor Jason Zadrozny and seconded by their Finance Spokesperson – Councillor Francis Purdue-Horan.
Councillor Jason Zadrozny, leader of the Independent Alliance called their proposal ‘common sense.’
“Our alternative budget is using broken promises to fix broken roads,” he said.
“In 2019, the county council spent £22,143,000 buying land around Toton Station in preparation for HS2. As HS2 has now been cancelled, we will sell this land and use this money to fix our broken roads and pavements.
The Government are now disposing of land bought for HS2 – so we are following Government policy to the letter. I expect this to be agreed next week as, in our view – it’s common sense.”
Councillor Francis Purdue-Horan, Finance Spokesperson for the Independent Alliance opposition group said, “Ask anybody in Nottinghamshire, what complaints they have and they will talk about the broken roads and pavements.
“Our budget amendment is a direct response to this. It shows we are listening to and acting on their concerns. It is a common sense, sensible move and deals with land the County Council don’t need.”
They have launched a “Love our Roads (and pavements)” petition to gain support for their amendment https://www.change.org/p/for-notts-county-council-to-spend-an-extra-20million-fixing-our-roads-and-pavements
Last week, the cabinet announced it would spend an extra £4m on road repairs as it proposed the budget for 2024-25.
This includes a 4.8 per cent rise in council tax.
But council leader Ben Bradley said they were still in a better position than many other councils.
Speaking last week, he said: “We are in the rare – if not unique – position of being able to set a balanced budget for the next two years despite a growing demand for services.”