£60m investment for Mansfield, Hucknall, Newark and Bassetlaw

An artists impression of the proposed new university building at the colleges Derby Road campus which will cost £7.8m

The money has been awarded by the Government under the Local Growth Deal following a successful bid by the Local Enterprise Partnership - D2N2 - a group of local authorities and businesses in Nottinghamshire, Nottingham, Derbyshire and Derby working together to drive business growth.

As part of the deal, West Nottinghamshire College has received a £2.6m boost which will bring its bid to found a university centre in Mansfield one step closer.

The cash will kick-start a project (pictured) to create a £7.8m flagship centre on the college’s Derby Road campus to expand its higher education (HE) provision.

There will also be money for bus, cycling and walking improvements in Mansfield, Newark, Hucknall and Worksop town centres to reduce congestion and encourage healthier living.

Leader of Nottinghamshire County Council, Coun Alan Rhodes, a member of D2N2 board, the Local Enterprise Partnership which shaped the Local Growth Deal bid, said: “This announcement is the culmination of months of hard work lobbying and negotiating to get a fair share of Government funding to support the much needed growth we want to see in our local economy.

“The transport and training projects will bring £60m of new investment to the county, helping to create thousands of new jobs and fresh opportunities. This is very welcome news for hard working families across the county who want to see more investment to open up new opportunities for better paid jobs.

“I am especially pleased to see the investment in Newark and the Rolls Royce development in Hucknall, as well as the Joint Scheme with the Sheffield City Region in Harworth and the north of the county to unlock new investment in former mining communities. These schemes will bring over new 4,000 jobs to Nottinghamshire.

“I would like to thank all of our partners and the Nottinghamshire business community for their support.”

Across Nottinghamshire, the Local Growth Deal will support many projects including improved transport links, new training courses and housing developments.

Key projects include:

Further investment totalling £26 million to bring forward the housing and employment proposals at the Rolls Royce site in Hucknall.

This will create a new primary school, community facilities and new employment space which will support up to 1,900 new jobs.

A £26.3m Newark Southern Link (relief) Road will connect the recently dualled A46 directly to the A1 around the southern side of Newark. It will release major areas of land for development, with over 3,000 houses predicted to be built. It also enables the development of employment sites on the eastern end of the new road – over time, it is estimated that 2,400 jobs could be created on these new sites.

A £2m scheme to improve the junctions around Harworth on the A1 and A614. These improvements are essential to unlock housing land around the former Harworth colliery in Bassetlaw. If selected for investment, this scheme will be funded by the D2N2 Local Enterprise Partnership and Sheffield City Region Local Enterprise Partnership.

The successful Local Growth Deal bid for Nottinghamshire was shaped by the County Council as a member of the Local Enterprise Partnership, D2N2. The County Council worked with local public and private sector partners, including local businesses, to identify the priority investment projects for Nottinghamshire.

D2N2 is one of largest LEPs in England and represents Derby, Derbyshire, Nottingham and Nottinghamshire.

Local Enterprise Partnerships are locally-owned partnerships between local authorities and businesses. They play a central role in deciding local economic priorities and undertaking activities to drive economic growth and create local jobs.