More than £5,000 has been spent on temporary toilets after ongoing maintenance issues at an ‘ageing’ council’s headquarters shut down facilities.
Nottinghamshire County Council’s iconic County Hall has been the authority’s headquarters since the 1940s.
The council’s Conservative group has been calling for the sale of the “ageing” site over the past few years, citing millions of pounds’ worth of repair and investment costs.
Because of this, the Tories moved into their purpose-built £19 million Oak House Building near Hucknall in March 2025 when they were in power – a move reversed by Reform UK when it took control of the authority in May 2025.
Vital upgrade works to the building, totalling nearly £500,000, were announced by Reform in October 2025, including £37,000 to ensure the building’s toilets would work properly, £45,000 towards main water tank works and £50,000 for sewage works.
Some of the building’s deteriorating facilities played up this winter, with water pressure problems meaning council members and staff had to walk 10 minutes to the nearby Trent Bridge House just to use the toilets on March 5. Similar issues happened on February 24.
• Council workers leave site to use toilet facilities 10 minutes away
The authority confirmed on March 5 that the problems with the water tank filling were “largely resolved” and that toilet facilities would be fully operational from March 9.
Despite this, the authority installed temporary portable toilets costing £5,000 on site later that day, March 5, with claims they were installed an hour after water pressure problems were fixed.
Councillor Sam Smith, Conservative leader of the opposition on the council said on Tuesday (March 17): “Staff members told me, as leader of the opposition, the portable toilets arrived an hour after water pressure issues at County Hall were resolved.
“What a joke that Reform did not cancel the order of the portable toilets, which are set to cost the taxpayers of Nottinghamshire at least £5,000.
“There are no water issues at County Hall as it stands, and Reform are literally flushing taxpayer money down the toilet when it should be going into potholes.”
A county council spokesperson said: “Given the council’s decision to remain at County Hall, there has been a variety of maintenance projects to help ensure the building doesn’t encounter operational issues.
“Due to recent tank upgrade work, temporary portaloo blocks have been available on site since Thursday 5 March. This is purely a contingency measure in case toilets in the main building weren’t available, as, of course, staff and visitors have to have access to these facilities.
“This upgrade work is due to finish very soon, so the blocks will be collected as soon as this work is completed this week.
“The costs for these portaloos are approximately £5,000 for a two-week period and will be covered by our routine facilities maintenance budget, which is a budget set aside to cover a whole range of scenarios.”
County Hall’s required essential repairs are projected to cost around £30 million over 12 years, with a further £28 million investment needed to bring it up to modern environmental standards, according to previous estimates.
The Conservatives brought the topic of flogging the site back into the spotlight at Reform’s budget meeting in February, mentioning “significant” running, compliance and maintenance costs the building has, while the sale could bring in around £20 million for the authority.
