There are hopes that Ollerton will be brought back to life under new plans for a cinema, café, and leisure hub.
Newark and Sherwood District Council has tabled plans to demolish the Forest Centre, the Lloyds TSB bank in Forest Road, and the Town Hall in Sherwood Drive, to make way for a mixed-use scheme.
In their place, it is intended that a new two-screen cinema will be built, alongside space for smaller businesses, a café, and customer services and office space for the authority.
Three council homes will also be built as part of the scheme.
Funding for the scheme, which forms part of the wider regeneration of the town centre, has come from the former Conservative Government’s Levelling Up Fund.
The plans are expected to be approved at a council planning meeting on 4 June.
Cllr Paul Peacock (Lab), the leader of the council, said: “This is another milestone. We are fully expecting the scheme to be completed by April 2028.
“A lot of our coalfield towns and villages have been neglected over decades. My time as leader has been about how we can get investment into them.”
Ollerton has a long history in the coal-mining industry, with the very first boreholes drilled as early as 1915, before the first coal was produced in 1926.
The colliery ceased production in 1994 before closing down entirely in 1995.
Cllr Peacock said he hoped the scheme would help boost productivity in the coalfield area, which has suffered following the decline of the industry.
“It is really important that, as a public body, we do step in and step up,” he added.
According to the plans, the new homes will front Sherwood Avenue and will replace the Town Hall.
The homes will be affordable rental properties for the council’s own stock, helping in turn to reduce the waiting list for homes.
The area between Rufford Avenue and Forest Road would feature two large buildings.
One of the buildings will include space for seven small or medium-sized businesses on the first floor, while the ground floor will have room for a retail unit, town hall offices, a staff room, meeting rooms, shared offices for the council, a public entrance and lobby, a customer service area, and toilets.
The other building will be used for the cinema and another retail unit.
Nottinghamshire County Council’s highways department has raised concerns in relation to parking demand and availability, and improvements have been suggested.
It is anticipated that, after the plans are approved, demolition and site clearance will take place in the autumn before construction begins in the winter this year.
