The East Midlands Mayor says a Nottinghamshire councillor’s request for all of her authority’s spare money to go to the county council for road maintenance was “never going to be accepted by anyone”.
Bert Bingham, who deals with transport for Nottinghamshire County Council, said at a meeting of the East Midlands Combined Authority (EMCCA)’s transport committee in January that Nottinghamshire was subject to “underfunding” and a “lack of representation”.
It came after the county was allocated £47m by EMCCA for highways in the 2026/2027 financial year – some £35m short of the amount it is estimated the authority needs just to maintain the roads in their current state, never mind improve them.
Cllr Bingham proposed that, because of this, a figure of around £18.5m that EMCCA had yet to allocate be given to the county council to make up the shortfall.
But when asked about this, Mayor Claire Ward said the suggestion was “never going to be accepted by anyone else”.
She said: “That was never going to be accepted by anyone else, simply because the fact that they’ve got a greater degree – they would argue – of highways maintenance needs, which I’m afraid is the responsibility of the last Conservative government and Conservative council.
“It’s now up to the new leadership to accept that there is more money coming – which there is – for potholes and for highways maintenance and to make sure that money is used well and the roads are fixed for the long term.
“We are in this situation not because of EMCCA funding in the last year but because of successive years of underfunding of our councils and highways. That’s the reality of the situation we’re trying to resolve.”
At the 15 January meeting, members voted to allocate a total of £120m to Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, Derby and Derbyshire roads for the 2026/2027 financial year.
This was to be split between the councils based on a formula created by the government’s Department for Transport, which takes into account factors such as the size of roads and the number of streetlights in each area.
Nottinghamshire will get £47m, Derbyshire will get £58m, and Nottingham and Derby city will both get £8m.
For the other three councils, those figures cover estimated maintenance needs.
It is estimated that Derbyshire needs £53m and that Derby and Nottingham cities need around £8m to keep their roads in their current state.
But Nottinghamshire is estimated to need £82m – meaning that its 2026/27 settlement is the only one that does not meet its maintenance requirement.
Also discussed at the meeting was the split of a further £22m for specific road projects, with Nottinghamshire’s including the A614/A6097 improvements and a road safety programme within the county.
• Site clearance starts on East Bridgford and Lowdham junctions scheme
But Councillor Bingham pointed out that Nottinghamshire was only being afforded 19% of one funding pot and 12% of another in this regard.
He said: “We note that of the four constituent authorities, we are the only ones allocated less than their maintenance requirement.
“We don’t want to take anything away from the other authorities – we recognise the importance of them being able to clear their backlog.
“But we note the £18.5m still unallocated and, given our lack of representation and underfunding, our very clear expectation is that all remaining unallocated funds will be added to further bolster our maintenance funding and close the gap with our estimated need.”
In January, Nottinghamshire was given an “amber” overall score, on a red-amber-green scale, by the Department for Transport on its Local Road Maintenance Ratings table for 2025/2026.
The county scored green for spending but amber for condition and wider best practice.
Cllr Bingham said the extra money would target work that would “positively impact the assessment criteria” for the rating.
He noted that even with the extra £18.5m, Nottinghamshire would still be £22m short of what it needs.
Responding, EMCCA’s Head of Transport Investment, Alex Linton, explained that the allocation was not based on how much each council was estimated to need to maintain its highways in their current state, but instead on maintaining a year-on-year position so that no authority receives less than it did in the previous year.
The Mayor said: “I will work with Reform in providing further funding, but then they need to deliver. I will say that to the cities led by Labour as well: it’s up to them to deliver. The state of the current highways is not my fault.
“I’m not responsible for highway maintenance. But we provided a 40% funding increase last year and it’s a 60% increase this year, and that will be sustained for the next three years.”
