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BBC News
21-03-2025
- Politics
- BBC News
Nottinghamshire: First meeting held at 'unfinished' council HQ
The first full meeting has been held at Nottinghamshire County Council's new headquarters, despite claims the building is "unfinished".The Conservative-run authority has relocated to Oak House near Hucknall after deciding its historic base at County Hall in West Bridgford was too expensive to leader Sam Smith acknowledged the new facility is still under construction but said it was "absolutely completely safe" to host a councillors, however, said it was "clearly not ready" and the meeting was only held as "a political stunt". Ashfield Independents leader Jason Zadrozny said: "It's not safe for people to be here. It's costing extra money to have safety briefings and to ship bottled water in."This is just a show by the Conservative administration."The council's online calendar shows smaller meetings scheduled for the coming weeks will be held back at County Hall, which will also host the declaration of results for the upcoming local group leader Kate Foale called Oak House a "vanity project" and said the council should consider selling the building. "Conservative councillors have rushed the builders to make half of Oak House semi-usable, so they can experience one meeting here before the elections in May," she however, denied he had insisted Oak House was used just to make a statement."The building as of right now is available and functional, and it's operational for the council meeting to take place. Why would we not do it if it's available?," he said. The building does not yet have a water supply which is safe to drink, but Smith said it will be in place before staff move in such as the Multi Agency Safeguarding Hub and the council's customer service centre are set to relocate to Oak House in late council said both are currently based in a leased office in Annesley which costs £278,000 a oak tree sapling was "temporarily" planted near the entrance to Oak House to mark its opening, but will later be moved to "a permanent place which will be visible to residents and passers-by".It is not yet known what will happen to County Hall in the long term. During the meeting itself on Thursday, councillors discussed the county council's approach to ongoing plans to reorganise local councillors formally endorsed the "county only" option, which would see smaller district and borough councils scrapped but the current boundary with Nottingham city remaining in was also the final full council meeting for former leader Ben Bradley, who has announced he will not be standing for re-election in May.
BBC News
28-02-2025
- Business
- BBC News
Last council meeting held at historic Nottinghamshire County Hall
County Hall has been at the heart of Nottinghamshire politics for decades and serves as a major landmark by the banks of the River Thursday, however, it hosted the final full council meeting before the County Council relocates to new offices - called Oak House - near Conservative-run authority said its historic base had become too expensive to run, and would need upwards of £50m of investment in order to bring it up to modern environmental is not yet known what will become of County Hall in the future, but the council said the building would be "preserved". It has previously been suggested it could be converted into homes, restaurants, and bars, but the council's leader recently said that ongoing plans to reorganise local government meant it could be needed for council purposes again in the future. The end of an era? The council first started planning for what would become County Hall in the 1930s, having previously been based at the Shire Hall in started on site in 1938, but construction was halted after the outbreak of World War Two, and the building was still incomplete when some council staff eventually moved there in original designs were significantly altered after the war due to financial restraints and labour notably, a huge bell tower which would have been three times taller than County Hall itself was concrete annexes were added in the 1960s and 70s, one of which was demolished in 2016, with the others due to follow suit in the coming months. Over the years the building has hosted royal visits and countless civic 2022, a major fire caused by a faulty light fitting caused extensive damage to the first-floor corridor where the council's executive members work cost more than £1.8million, with the cost met by 2023, parts of the building were used for the filming of BBC series the seat of local government for the county, however, it has regularly been the setting for real-world political drama, and Thursday's meeting was no different. The annual budget-setting saw clashes over a 4.84% increase to council tax, with several councillors trading insults, prompting calls from the chairman to moderate Conservatives argued they have limited the impact on bills by not putting them up by the maximum allowed, and said they have balanced affordability with the demand for of the Ashfield Independents, Jason Zadrozny, called the tax rise "insulting" and accused the Conservatives of "picking the pockets" of meanwhile, proposed an amendment to the budget which would have involved spending more on flood defences and children's services, paid for by selling Oak group leader Kate Foale said the new headquarters was "unfit for purpose" and had become a "vanity project".The amendment was defeated, with Conservatives arguing Oak House will save money in the long term through reduced operating budget - and tax rise - was ultimately confirmed. The first full council meeting at the new base is scheduled for March details on the reorganisation of local councils are expected in the coming weeks, with various options being discussed behind the future of County Hall now appears to be at least loosely linked to those marked the end of decades of full council meetings taking place under its iconic green least for now.
