Council to stay at historic base, Reform confirms

Nottinghamshire County Council is set to remain at its historic headquarters, the authority's new leader has confirmed.

The council has been based at County Hall in West Bridgford for decades but was in the process of relocating to new offices near Hucknall, and a first full council meeting was held there under the Conservatives in March.

Since taking over at the local elections in May, however, Reform UK has held most meetings at the old base, and council leader Mick Barton has now told the BBC that County Hall can be considered the council's head office again.

"It's a wonderful building," he said. "Yes, it is my headquarters and we're having meetings here, why wouldn't we use it?"

The new building - called Oak House - was originally built to house services such as the Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub, which had been based in rented offices.

The Conservatives later decided to also use it as the council's headquarters after a review found County Hall required "significant ongoing maintenance".

The council said in 2023 that the building would need more than £30m in essential repairs over 12 years and a further £28m of investment to bring it up to modern environmental standards.

Conservative group leader and former council leader Sam Smith said Reform would now have to explain where it would find the money to renovate County Hall.

"What libraries are they closing, what roads and pavements aren't they repairing, what recycling centres are they closing, what youth centres are being shut, what schools aren't going to be built?" he said.

Earlier this month, Labour called for the council to move back to County Hall and suggested Oak House be sold.

According to the council's online calendar, all meetings currently scheduled for June are due to be held at County Hall, along with all but two meetings in July.

A full council meeting on 10 July and a cabinet meeting on 17 July are both due to be held at Oak House.

Asked why those two meetings would not be held at County Hall, Barton said: "We can utilise both buildings.

"We've got lots of buildings throughout Nottinghamshire, so we could have it somewhere else if we wanted to."

It has previously been suggested the two buildings could be used as the headquarters of separate newly-established authorities.

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