By Joe Locker, Local Democracy Reporter
Nottingham City Council has approved its plans to begin the reopening of Nottingham Castle from May with a special event for the King’s Coronation.
The doors to the historic site have been closed since November after the Nottingham Castle Trust announced it was going into liquidation just 18 months after a £33m revamp project was completed.
The site was then handed back to the Labour-run council, which has been under pressure from city residents and a campaign group, Open the Gates, ever since.
During an Executive Board meeting on Tuesday, March 21 councillors approved the plan to fully reopen the Castle from June, with preview events beginning in May.
One of the events will be a live-streaming of the Coronation of King Charles III and Queen Consort Camilla, which will take place on Saturday, May 6.
The event, which will include a concert, will be funded by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport.
Pavlos Kotsonis (Lab), the portfolio holder for leisure, culture and planning, said: “You’ll be glad to know the city has been offered a significant funding package so it is going to be possible for us to offer live streaming of the King’s Coronation in the Castle grounds as well as the Coronation Concert in May.
“Details of how people can book tickets will follow in the coming days. For those who are planning to travel to London, I would encourage you to cancel your plans.”
Up to £2.13m has been earmarked for the reopening plan over financial years of 2023/24, 2024/25 and 2025/26.
The business plan however is currently estimated to cost £1.886m, and any surplus budget will be returned if it is not used.
At the same time the council will determine how best to run the site in the future, including keeping it in-house or outsourcing the running of the site to the private sector.
A hybrid partnership between public and private sectors will also be considered.
Lessons will be learned, according to the council, and ticket prices have been reviewed with a view to make them “better”.
The exact pricing structure is yet to be announced.
“It gives me great pleasure to be bringing forward today the report for approval by Executive Board for the reopening of the Castle this June subject obviously to the successful recruitment of new staff,” Cllr Kotsonis said.
“This is the culmination of four months of hard work on planning for reopening the site since the site was received back to us from the Castle Trust since liquidation.
“Under the plans presented here today we will be able to provide preview activity in the Castle grounds in May, to reconnect the Castle with Nottingham people.
“This will include opening day dates – of which are yet to be confirmed.
“We also plan to launch the Brewhouse Yard project which has not been showcased since it started.
“We will be soon announcing new positions for employees of the Castle and we will be encouraging staff who lost their positions in the Castle Trust insolvency to apply to work for the Castle now as part of our municipal museums service.
“I’m really please to share with you the new pricing will be better, including plans to make the site more attractive to young families.
“The details of the new pricing structure will be served in due course.”
Cllr David Mellen, the leader of the council, added: “Clearly there has been a lot of upset and distress from people who value and appreciated the Castle.
“We needed to get this open as quickly as we can, but we have done that now with the assurance of a business case which helps us to take that forward.”
