Nottinghamshire Conservative councillors claim that £250 million-worth of county taxpayers’ assets will be handed over to an expanded city under the biggest council shake-up in 50 years.
Border towns including West Bridgford, Arnold and Beeston will soon be absorbed into an expanded city as part the Labour Government’s plans for local government reorganisation.
This restructuring will see all nine existing councils across Nottinghamshire abolished, and the current two-tier structure, be replaced by two entirely new unitary authorities, with elections to be held May 2027.
One will with the city alongside portions of Broxtowe, Gedling and Rushcliffe, while another will cover Ashfield, Bassetlaw, Mansfield, Newark and Sherwood, plus the remaining sections of the three boroughs neighbouring the city.
Conservative leader of the opposition at Nottinghamshire County Council, Cllr Sam Smith, said the neighbouring boroughs were being carved up, which he claims could lead to the stripping away of a significant portion of the county’s tax base, damaging services in these areas.
On Friday (July 17), the day after the Government announced it had chosen Labour-run Nottingham City Council’s boundary review option, Conservative councillors gathered at County Hall to present a giant mock cheque for £250 million, made out as if it had been signed by Reform UK to Nottingham City Council, “symbolising the enormous transfer of public wealth at the cost of the Nottinghamshire County Council taxpayers”.
Cllr Smith said he feared these assets, including County Hall itself, could be used to benefit city residents, rather than those living under the current council arrangements in the rural county.
“It is an absolute disgrace,” he said.
“We’ve called it out from day one as the Conservative team, we’ve said we want to protect the county for this exact reason that all the assets right across Rushcliffe, Broxtowe, and Gedling, are going to get stripped and focused on the centre of Nottingham. That is no good for the residents in the county now.
“As the Conservative opposition leader here at Nottinghamshire County Council I have written, with the Conservative leader of Rushcliffe Borough Council, to the Reform leader here to say we need a judicial review.”
Cllr Stuart Bestwick (Con) said his group had proposed an alterative budget earlier this year, recommending the sale of assets to raise £100 million, but this had been rejected by the leading Reform group on the county council at the time.
“That could have been spent on the residents of Nottinghamshire County Council before the expanded city took hold of all of those assets,” he said.
Responding to the mock cheque, Cllr Mick Barton, the Reform leader of the county council, said it was the Conservatives who first “invented” local government reorganisation, referencing plans for a new super council under former Conservative leader of the authority, Kay Cutts, in 2018.
He described it as a “very cheap, very misleading publicity stunt by a failed Tory group”.
“And yet they had ten years in charge and did nothing,” he continued.
“This shows that they are poorly-led and have no idea at all how governance works. That’s why they left the council in debt and the roads in a mess.
“They dodged making a decision on LGR in 10 years and making no decision is not an option.
“They obviously do not realise it’s the Labour Government which picked this up off the Tories, and it is Labour looking after Labour. They just don’t understand, obviously.
“Reform UK doesn’t agree with or support LGR, but we are not in government so we made the best decision for our residents within the guidelines Labour set. Labour picked Labour city’s options across the country to protect Labour.
“Both Labour and the Tories will pay for this debacle of LGR at the next election. In the meantime we will run the council in a professional way and deliver excellent services that our residents expect.”
Cllr Barton said he would pursue a judicial review if that emerged as the most sensible option.
Nottingham City Council’s leader, Cllr Neghat Khan, declined to comment on the cheque stunt.
On the shake-up, she has said: “Our proposal recognises that Greater Nottingham functions as a single economic area, with hundreds of thousands of people travelling across administrative boundaries every day for work, education, healthcare, shopping and leisure. At the same time, it recognises that rural communities have their own distinct opportunities and challenges and deserve a council focused on their needs.
“By creating two strong and sustainable unitary councils, built around the realities of our urban and rural communities, we can deliver services that are more responsive, more accountable and better connected to the people they serve.”
By Joe Locker, Local Democracy Reporter