Nottingham to spend £4m on pothole repairs as part of major investment plans

The Labour-run council managed to underspend by £20.4m in the last financial year and Bulwell councillor and council deputy leader Ethan Radford (Lab) said the sum will be invested in a raft of improvements for the city, subject to final approval at a meeting of senior councillors September 22.

Most of the money will be directly invested, while just under £5m will be retained as a contingency.

The plans include £4m for pothole repairs, £1.2m to give pensioners free access to leisure centres, £1m in business rates relief for small, independent firms, and more than £1m for civic pride events including a Robin Hood festival.

As part of efforts to bring community protection officer (CPO) numbers back to pre-pandemic levels, 20 full-time or equivalent roles are also being created.

Coun Radford told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: “This will have a huge impact.

"Specifically, an extra £4m on potholes is going to see a tangible improvement in the state of the roads and just shy of £1m in more CPOs means people are going to feel a lot safer.

“Nearly £1m-worth of business rates relief means businesses are going to feel that extra level of support, the solar power de-carbonisation grants that we are going to be giving out to the tune of £2.5m will see people able to deal with their energy bills and de-carbonise their homes to keep the costs of keeping them warm, down.

“The free leisure offer means anyone of a pensionable age will be able to use any one of our leisure centres for free.”

The investment is the third round of funding the council has made, with £25m having already been allocated.

This brings the total amount invested in the last three years to £45m.

One of the council’s prior investments was free swimming for under-16s during holiday periods.

Coun Radford said this had been a ‘tremendous success’, with 4,000 sessions booked and 1,000 new memberships created.

The success of the scheme led to the roll-out of free leisure centre access for pensioners.

Coun Radford continued: “What we want is sustained improvement as a council and sustained improvement in services.

"We have consistently promised more each time.”

Some of the other projects include more greenery for the city, funding for 20 litter pickers, a deep clean of the city to remove chewing gum, and the replacement and refurbishment of litter bins.

At a full council meeting on September 14, Coun Andrew Rule (Ind) questioned whether some of the money could be used to freeze council tax next year.

Coun Radford said he is conscious of the impact of tax rises on people’s pockets.

However, he said at this stage in time it would be ‘premature’ to hold the money back from service improvements.

Coun Kirsty L Jones (NPA), argued the residents of the city should have time to scrutinise where money is spent before decisions are made.