More than £11m to be spent on ‘urgent’ Nottingham Council House repairs
Urgent repair work to Nottingham’s landmark Council House will total more than £11m, new figures have revealed.
In the 1920s, famed architect TC Howitt was commissioned to design the city’s new Council House and it was opened on May 22, 1929, by the Prince of Wales, who later became King Edward VIII.
The Grade II-listed building will celebrate its centenary in 2029, and Nottingham City Council’s ruling Labour group pledged to give it a revamp ahead of this in its election manifesto back in 2023.
The authority has now revealed it will be spending £8.65m to repair the leaking roof, in addition to £2.97m for other urgent repairs, over the next three years – subject to approval by councillors on October 20.
Council papers said: “The proposed three-year capital programme will enable the council to address the most pressing health and safety and condition-related issues first, while also undertaking targeted preventative works that reduce the risk of more extensive and costly failures later.
“This supports a planned, risk-based approach to protecting the operational estate and maintaining service continuity.”
Nottingham’s Council House acts as a forum for debate and decision-making when Nottingham councillors meet for full council.
It is also still the register office for births, marriages, and deaths.
It is the largest civic building in the city and features a 200ft dome, which houses the Little John bell.
At the time of its commissioning, it was to become the largest stone building built in the country since the First World War.
The work forms part of a wider £19m repairs programme to the council’s wider property estate.
A recent survey found the council would need to spend more than £30m on priority works across its entire operational estate.
Loxley House, the council’s headquarters in Station Street, also requires almost £6m for urgent repairs, which will be funded under the programme.
Lesser sums are to be spent on urgent works on other buildings, including £950,000 at the St Ann’s Valley Centre, £100,000 on flooring at the Royal Concert Hall, £200,000 at Byron House, and £62,000 on the Broad Marsh car park and bus station.