Nottinghamshire Independents promise extra £20m for roads by selling off HS2 land in alternative budget amendment

The Independents say they will raise the cash – £10m for each of the next two years – by borrowing money from the sale of council-owned land at Toton that was that was originally purchased for the now-scrapped HS2 project.

The Alliance says its proposed budget amendent is legal and fully costed and would come on top of the additional money to be spent after the impact of Storm Babet.

If agreed, at the annual full council budget meeting on February 22, it will represent the biggest ever amount of money spent on fixing the county’s broken roads and pavements in two consecutive years.

The amendment will moved by Independent Alliance leader Coun Jason Zadrozny (Ash Ind) and seconded by Coun Francis Purdue-Horan (Ind), the group’s finance spokesperson.

The Independents have also launched a ‘Love our Roads (and pavements)’ campaign and have launched a petition to put pressure on the Conservative-run council to fix Nottinghamshire’s roads

The petition can be viewed and signed at change.org/p/for-notts-county-council-to-spend-an-extra-20million-fixing-our-roads-and-pavements

Coun Zadrozny called the amendment ‘common sense’ and even claimed he was following Conservative Government’s own policy of selling land not needed because the northern leg of HS2

He said: “Our alternative budget is using broken promises to fix broken roads.

"In 2019, the council spent £22.1m buying land around Toton Station in preparation for HS2.

"As HS2 has now been cancelled, we will sell this land and use this money to fix our broken roads and pavements.

"The Government are now disposing of land bought for HS2, so we are following Government policy to the letter.

"I expect this to be agreed next week as, in our view, it’s common sense.

"Via East Midlands (which looks after Nottinghamshire’s highways on behalf of the council) has confirmed that they can put the spades in the ground and spend this extra investment.

"A report to going the full council meeting states: ‘In the opinion of the service director for finance, infrastructure and improvement, these amendments meet the requirements of the Local Government Finance Act 1992, the Local Government Act 2003 and the CIPFA Prudential Code’.”

Coun Purdue-Horan added: “Ask anybody in Nottinghamshire, what complaints they have and they will talk about the broken roads and pavements.

"Our budget amendment shows we are listening to, and acting on their concerns.

“It is a common sense, sensible move and deals with land the council doesn’t need.”

The site around Toton Station was last valued for asset value purposes in April 2023 at £23m.

The Independent amendment means each borough or district in Nottinghamshire will receive £5.2m for road repairs, each year for the next two years.

Last week, the cabinet announced it would spend an extra £4m on road repairs as it proposed the budget for 2024-25.

This includes a 4.8 per cent rise in council tax.

But Coun Ben Bradley MP (Con), council leader, said they were still in a better position than many other councils.

Speaking at the time, he said: “We are in the rare – if not unique – position of being able to set a balanced budget for the next two years despite a growing demand for services.”