Summer 2022

13th July was a busy day.. Full Council at both Nottinghamshire and Rushcliffe. I will focus on the two major issues.

County Hall
Nottinghamshire County Council want to sell County Hall. There is so much I can write about this.
First, I would like to make it clear that I think that currently this building is shockingly underused, and I can only assume that this is due to a lack of imagination and commercial nous in the current administration.

I went to a meeting last November where I as far as I recall I was shown an apparently advanced plan to convert the whole site, including the older, majestic ‘H’-block into flats. I believe that this was being presented to me as a done deal that had been discussed with developers, down to the details of which parts of the building should be listed. I am now told that I am confused and misremember. Surprising as I am not often confused.

The trouble is that to close County Hall they will have to move staff and move the Council Chamber.

They plan to move the Council Chamber by extending the propose new building at Top Wighay. As the Councillor for County Hall, clearly I have a vested interest in this, and I do accept that Top Wighay is more central in the County, but I can see several problems with this plan.

First, the costs are really not clear.. for instance they have included the costs of cleaning the existing building but not the new building in their calculations! The rest of the figures feel equally flimsy to me. I’m worried they are going to embark on a vanity project and the next Labour administration will be left to sort out a ballooning costs. The fact that Top Wighay is right in the middle of the proposed Mayoral authority area seems unlikely to be coincidental- handy for someone who wants to be Mayor, leader of NCC and MP.

Second, County Hall is on the major river crossing for the County so is extremely well served by public transport. A lot of Labour Councillors come by bus and train, and I haven’t met one yet who would rather go to Top WIghay.

Finally, I’m not one for standing on ceremony, but if we are going to respect democracy we should put the Council Chamber in a building which has some majesty rather than some new big shed. We happen to have such a building available- County Hall.

But even if the Council chamber moves what will happen to the building? One of the reasons they say they need to move out is because of the cost of renovating the building, but this will have to be done whatever happens next unless they are seriously considering knocking it down.

The IT facilities at County Hall are far better than those I have access to at work on the University of Nottingham campus. During the pandemic state of the art hybrid meeting rooms were put everywhere. It will be a disgrace it these are ripped out but more importantly, they should be being made available to residents and businesses in the area.

They say that staff are no longer working in the office. I am someone who has campaigned for flexible working arrangements for years, but from my working and family experience, WHF is not great for mental wellbeing or indeed developing new staff. It also pushes the costs of heating, lighting and space onto staff and means some staff will be working in wholly unsuitable situations like kitchen stools, due to lack of space. It seems a bit early to be making the decision to throw out the office desks.

But what else can we use the building? I have lots of suggestions but what do you think? Put your ideas here.
The main thing is, this building should stay as public realm space, owned and managed by the council, and actually open to the public providing the services we need locally.

LDO for Ratcliffe on Soar Power Station Site

The overall planning framework for the site was discussed at the Rushcliffe meeting. I am fundamentally opposed to the overall plans as it will be a freeport, based in part on its location next to the airport. Freeports reduce tax income and reduce workers and environmental protections. Think ‘Singapore on Trent’. They are meant to bring in jobs but I do not think we should be selling our selves cheap in this way. Also, there isn’t currently a shortage of jobs, and the area we need jobs is in the north of the County, not by junction 23 of the M1.

One of the major problems of this location is travel. I think may actually be responsible for a bus link from the tram stop at Clifton to the site being included in the plans, but this is a drop in the ocean considering all the problems that will be caused. Again, this is not where the jobs are needed, it is not where people live.

The only thing that is definitely banned on the site is wind turbines- on a site that currently has cooling towers, pylons and chimneys! Every time we say anything at Rushcliffe the Tories try to say we are being ideological. Well banning wind turbines but allowing ground mounted solar panels site seems like blind ideology to me.

Ill add more details later but I want to get this out now with a petition on County Hall.