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Nottinghamshire County Council holds final budget-setting meeting at County Hall before relocation

Nottinghamshire County Council has marked the end of an era as it prepares to relocate from its historic County Hall headquarters.

The authority held its final full council meeting on Thursday (February 27) at the West Bridgford building after more than seven decades.

That saw its budget for the upcoming financial year – and a 4.84 per cent council tax rise – approved by politicians.

The council will be moving from the building – on the banks of the River Trent – to its new location, called Oak House, on the edge of Hucknall and Linby.

The future of its existing HQ is yet to be decided, but potential options are currently being drawn up – and the public will be consulted.

Previous suggestions include converting the building into apartments, a hotel or restaurants and bars.

Speaking at County Hall on the day the authority set its budget in the building for a final time, council leader Cllr Sam Smith (Con) said the relocation “moves services closer to people that need them”.

And he said the move will “save millions and millions of pounds” by avoiding the historic County Hall’s growing maintenance bill.

He said: “We can reinvest [this money] into those services. Maintaining County Hall became very expensive with a spike in running costs. So we decided to add on another layer at Oak House to create a civic suite, as we call it.

“I’d love to stay here. I’d love to keep operating out of here.

“But unfortunately, that would cost over £50 million to renovate the building to make it energy efficient, and bring it up to standard and safety regulations for not only members of staff and councillors who work here, but members of the public who come and access our services.”

“The council will still get tens of millions of pounds from that sale that could be reinvested into public services. And that is something we pride ourselves on, residents … would rather money be spent on their services than on buildings, and that’s exactly what we’re doing.”

Construction on County Hall began in 1939, but it was paused during the Second World War.

It finished in 1954, which was when the County Council moved in.

Its history includes a visit from Her Royal Highness, the late Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Phillip, the late Duke of Edinburgh, during the Queen’s Golden Jubilee in 1977.

But with the building being repurposed, questions have been raised about how other elements of its history can be protected.

That includes from opposition councillors – who previously suggested it could be sold off “to the highest bidder”.

The ruling Conservatives have previously pledged to protect its historic features – including the iconic green roof.

Cllr Smith added: “It’s a massive, brilliant building. You know, everybody who’s from Nottinghamshire, or who drives through Nottinghamshire, will see this grand building. It’s absolutely spectacular.

“Residents will still be able to access this historic building and that’s really important.

“We are working through a business plan to see what developers are interested in, that it could be a range of things that will be exciting for the people of Nottinghamshire to come and enjoy.”

However, Cllr Mike Pringle, who’s deputy leader of the Labour group, has been critical of the move to the Oak House – questioning the transport and allocation of funds towards the building.

He said: “It’s not fit for purpose. It’s certainly not fit to be a civic provision. The lack of transport, in particular the lack of parking. The fact there’s going to be demand for the amount of housing in and around it, it doesn’t tick the boxes that it was set to tick.

“There’s £23 million of investment that really shouldn’t have gone into that. If we stayed here [at County Hall], that would have been an investment here.”

Questions also remain over how the building will be reused once future reforms to Nottinghamshire’s local government structure are enacted.

The Government wants to remove the existing two-tier system – and replace councils with larger unitary authorities covering areas of at least 500,000 people.

This would lead to the county council and the district and borough authorities being scrapped and replaced by the bigger, super councils.

Local leaders are working together to set out the best option for Nottinghamshire – and Cllr Smith previously suggested this may involve County Hall being reused by any new, future Nottinghamshire councils.