Six months of Reform in charge in Nottinghamshire

Reform UK took Nottinghamshire from the Conservatives, now sitting with a total 41 out of 66 seats after summer by-elections, leaving the Tories with 18 seats as the main opposition group.

Reform pledged to find financial efficiencies if it got into power, particularly around the county’s highways and adult social care – two of the biggest drains on any local authority’s finances.

It has remained relatively quiet policy-wise for the first few months, but with service and financial reviews beginning to wrap up, here are the notable moves the authority has made in its first six months.

A review into the county’s roads

In June 2025, the authority decided to review the county’s roads and highway services and the outcomes of this were discussed in an early November cabinet meeting.

Speaking to the LDRS in early November, council leader Coun Mick Barton said the authority and its highway partner, VIA, ‘have worked really hard before winter’ to fix potholes.

More than 8,800 potholes have been reported to the council since April 1 and Coun Bert Bingham (Ref), cabinet member for transport and environment, told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) these would be ‘pretty much fixed by December’ as part of preventative efforts before the colder and wetter months.

Out of the 17 miles of resurfacing works planned for the 2025-26 financial year, around 14.5 miles have already been completed since April.

The ‘three-road principle’ has also been reintroduced under the Reform authority, meaning each county councillor can put forward three roads each in their respective wards that require the most attention – and these will be seen as priority roads for fixing.

Coun Barton told the LDRS November 11 that the county’s residents will see ‘massive improvements’ in Nottinghamshire’s roads after 12 months of the Reform administration.

Millions of pounds of potential savings

Back in June, the authority also announced its efficiency review, which aims to find savings across council services.

This review is due to conclude around December.

On November 11, Cllr Barton shared with the LDRS initial projections of how the authority was planning on saving over £45m over the next three years.

It faces a £15.9m budget shortfall by 2028-29.

The Reform authority wants to save £21.28m across adult social care and children’s services over the next three years, with around £9.6m expected to be achieved in 2025-26 by reviewing high-cost care packages and exploring ‘direct payment’ options within adult social care.

Coun Barton told the LDRS the planned saving will not have an effect on the people the council’s looking after, and the council has already invested ‘heavily' in high-tech caring equipment to help costs.

The authority is also looking to save over £17.5m by reducing the pay for external placement providers for children in care, including commissioning a new set of specialist children’s homes, and aims to increase family-based placements.

Around £1.83m in SEND transport savings has been identified over the next three years, with a £2.3m mitigation expected due to changes to the ‘post-16 transport to direct travel assistance payment’ and the transition of pre-16 transport to a direct travel assistance payment, estimated to result in a £280,000 mitigation.

The withdrawal of faith school transport is expected to save £900,000 – however, this has a two-year time lag, allowing current year 10 and 11 students to complete their education at the school.

Coun Sam Smith (Con), leader of the opposition Conservatives has criticised these planned savings as ‘playing spreadsheet wizard’ and as ‘back-loading’.

He told the LDRS: “How can you right now know how many children will require SEND services or adult social care within the next three years?

"They’ve put an estimate into a spreadsheet, and it has produced a figure.

“The cost of care and SEND will balloon – it’s built on sand.”

Half a-million-pound emergency repairs to the iconic County Hall

In October, Reform announced they would be spending £500,000 on emergency repairs to the ageing County Hall building in West Bridgford.

The grand, historical building served as the council’s main base since being built in the 1950s, but the previous Conservative administration moved its headquarters to the £19m Oak House building near Hucknall and Linby.

But Reform has decided to operate democratic functions from both locations and the money will go towards fixes such as ensuring fridges and toilets at County Hall work properly.

Coun Smith has previously said the decision shows Reform are not keeping to their money-saving promises, saying: “The £1.7m annual saving in the budget has vanished and they’re now spending hundreds of thousands more to keep a second building open.

"This isn’t good financial management – it’s complete chaos.”

A £75,000 spend on new banners

In October, the council announced it was going to spend £75,000 installing more than 150 Union Jack banners in 82 locations across the county.

At a cost of around £457 per banner, 164 of these will be displayed across districts and boroughs and part of the spend will also include replacing brackets, traffic management, and the use of cherry pickers.

Coun Barton previously told the LDRS the move was a ‘long-term’ investment, with future plans to put banners up in their place to celebrate Nottinghamshire Day, the Tour of Britain, and other events.

Opposition groups have criticised the spending, and Coun Mike Adams (Con) previously said: “As Conservatives, we love the Union flag, I have one outside my house, but it should stay as donations.

“People have been doing this out of their own pockets.

"Why should a struggling family be contributing to this from their council tax?”

Nottinghamshire’s Labour group argued the move was ‘wasting our money’.

Nottinghamshire Live ban

One of the most widely-reported topics the Reform council found itself at the centre of was when it banned a local publication from engaging with the council at the end of summer.

Nottinghamshire Live was banned from the Reform council following an article in August which included a claim that Reform councillors not voting for Coun Barton’s preference on local government reorganisation (LGR) could be suspended from the group.

The Reform authority stopped sending press releases to the organisation, giving interviews to its reporters or inviting them to council events, saying only in emergency situations would the ban be lifted.

But at the end of September a partial ban lift was achieved for the publication’s three BBC-funded LDRS reporters.

The lifting of the ban was then extended to the rest of Nottinghamshire Live in early October.

Looking to the future

Coun Barton told the LDRS that the council is ‘going to raise the budgets’ for roads.

It appears he will be asking the East Midlands Mayor, Claire Ward (Lab), for more money, saying: “It’s my job as chair of the transport and digital connectivity committee at the East Midlands Combined Authority to make sure I fight tooth and nail for everything that we get in Nottinghamshire.”

Regarding the future of the council retaining one of its bases at County Hall, the leader told the LDRS on Tuesday the authority would ‘definitely be keeping the building’, depending on the results of LGR

He said: “That’s up to the Government, depending on where the geography lets County Hall sit.

"Why would you not want to keep a place like this?

"It needs money spending on it – we’ve got the money identified that we can spend on it.”

Coun Barton says any updates on what residents will pay in council tax will be known next January, with the authority waiting until it knows how much money the Labour Government would give it in a financial settlement.

Settlements are awarded to all councils every year, with the amount revealed in December.