Nottinghamshire Conservatives accuse Independents of 'selling the family silver' for £20m roads plan

The Independents will put forward a budget amendment at next week’s full council meeting where it will outline its plans to raise the extra cash by selling land at Toton originally bought in 2019 for the now abandoned HS2 northern leg project.

Alliance leader Coun Jason Zadrozny (Ash Ind) has called the amendment ‘common sense’ but the ruling Tories have accused him and the Independents of merely just trying to chase headlines.

Coun Ben Bradley MP (Con), council leader, said: “As ever, it is disappointing that the Independents only think about what headlines they can write off the back of what should be a serious budget debate.”

“We recognise that our roads are really important to our residents, and that there is no doubt a lot of work that needs doing across the county.

"We have acknowledged this again within our budget, but this is an issue that will take billions to solve and we have an answer for that.

"Not only have we increased the funding for highways, but we have also secured an additional £1.5bn transport fund as part of the East Midlands Devolution Deal that will help us from later this year.”

"What the Independents have suggested here would be severely damaging to the Nottinghamshire economy, it would destroy the opportunities that we have created at Toton to massively invest in jobs, housing and add billions of pounds to our economy, which in turn will create huge opportunities for local people for decades.

"The fact the Independents would take all of that away just so they could write a headline today is appalling.”

Coun Richard Jackson (Con), cabinet member for finance and resources, added: “This is not the first time the Independent Alliance have put forward an amendment that is, effectively, selling the family silver in order to write a political headline.”

“We have a duty to balance the budget and make sound long term decisions.

"If we fail to do this, and if we had listened to the Independents in all previous years, we would be in a situation like our neighbours at the Nottingham City Council, essentially declaring ourselves bankrupt.”

“I am, however, pleased that the Independents support our revenue budget and proposals around council tax.

“Our budget already includes an additional £4m for road repairs which comes on top of the additional cash from Government”

“The site at Toton is a strategic land holding that will increase in value as plans for other developments and new infrastructure in the area gain pace.

"Retaining the land allows the council to shape development and ensure we maximise the benefits of the development to the local community by attracting employers to create high quality jobs, as part of an overall strategy creating 74,000 additional jobs and £4bn in gross value added (GVA) across the region.

“A ‘quick sale’ as the amendment calls for will significantly reduce the value we could achieve for the site, this added to the additional borrowing costs it requires would see a loss in excess of £5m of public money which would inevitably impact on council services.”