Conservatives and Reform clash in row over car park repairs at County Hall

The Tories have accused council leader Coun Mick Barton of lying when he said the car park had simply been cleaned and not resurfaced after they brought to light an internal email sent by Hucknall councillor Richard Darrington (Ref) in which he praises the ‘amazing, first-class pothole repairs’ in the County Hall car park that were organised by Reform and asks why residents in Hucknall South and elsewhere across Nottinghamshire are not seeing the same standard?

But Coun Barton says while some potholes were repaired it was last summer – and Tory councillors have been driving over them ever since – and no resurfacing has since taken place.

Coun Sam Smith (Con), the Conservative group leader, said: “Reform Councillors have been caught out saying one thing in public and another in private.

"They denied repairing the County Hall car park, yet here is a Reform councillor now describing the work as ‘first-class’ and wanting them to be rolled out elsewhere.

“Residents will rightly ask why Reform prioritised smoothing and sealing potholes outside their own offices while ordinary people are left dodging craters on their local streets.”

Fellow Conservative councillor Mike Introna, the shadow cabinet member for highways, added: “Reform were elected on bold promises, and they have broken every single one of them.

"Council tax is up by £20m, roads are in a shocking state and taxpayers’ money has been wasted on vanity projects like lamppost flags and repairing their own car park – which the Reform leader originally lied about by claiming the County Hall car park repairs did not happen.

“This email from a Reform councillor confirms they are more interested in looking after their own council car parks than looking after residential streets.

"Nottinghamshire deserves honesty, competence and fairness — not double standards and broken promises.”

The Conservatives are now calling on Reform’s leadership to explain why high-quality repairs were carried out at County Hall while residential roads across Nottinghamshire continue to crumble.

In a post on the Reform UK Sherwood Forest Facebook page, Coun Barton described Coun Smith and the Conservatives’ comments as ‘spreading misinformation’.

He said: “Before Christmas, in the members area at the back of County Hall, they said we’d had it all resurfaced – we hadn’t.

"We just had it jet washed and cleaned and they can’t tell the difference between retarmacing and just having it cleaned for safety reasons.

"And now they’re saying I’ve told a lie by saying we haven’t had any resurfacing done but we haven’t.

"We had the potholes (they are talking about) resurfaced last June.

"They’ve been driving over them for the last eight months and now they’re saying we’ve had some resurfacing done in December – you couldn’t make it up.

"These people (the Conservatives) have in charge of repairing highways for the last 10 years, no wonder they’re in such a poor state.

"I’ve got a job to do, I’m the leader of the council and I’m doing what residents want us to do which is fix the roads and run the council properly.

"So while Coun Smith is doing all this nonsense, Reform councillors are out there doing the job residents want us to do.”