Nottinghamshire County Council will be charged £15,000 a year to store buses at a park and ride in the city.
Four electric buses owned by the County Council will be stored at the facility in Queens Drive, which is operated by Nottingham City Council.
A dedicated electric bus compound, where the vehicles can be securely stored and hooked up to rapid charging points, was built at the park and ride site to accommodate the City Council’s growing fleet of electric buses.
It now has the largest council-owned fleet of electric buses in Europe.
Four vacant spaces will be rented out to the County Council, providing an income of £78,000 over a five-year period.
The income will improve the City Council’s four-year financial plan (MTFP), at a time when it remains under the watch of a Government-appointed improvement board.
Some of the shorter-term measures in this plan are £29m of cuts and savings which aim to fill a budget gap of £32.2m in 2023/24.
To fill the gap, 110 full-time equivalent job roles will be cut alongside a council tax rise by five per cent.
In the longer-term, the council will seek to strengthen its reserves and balances in important areas, such as its General Fund, which is typically used for the running of day-to-day services.
General Fund balances are forecast to grow from £14.6m (5.6 per cent) to £17.6m (6.1 per cent) over the four-year period, and to do this the council is working to increase income generated.
Alongside lesser sums of income from renting the parking spaces, larger sums of income will typically come from the selling of property assets.
Delegated decision documents say:
“Providing storage of Nottinghamshire County Council’s buses at NCC’s Queens [Drive] bus park will generate annual income of £15,600, or £78,000 over a 5 year period for the arrangement, this income is included in the budget.
“Renting out the space does not affect core bus service provision, as the spaces are currently empty.
“There are no financial concerns to this as this is income, improving the MTFP
position.”
