Updated: Aim for new Top Wighay Council offices on edge of Hucknall to be open by 2025

Nottinghamshire County Council is aiming to have its new headquarters on the edge of Hucknall built and operational within the next three years.

The final plans for the building at the Top Wighay Farm development on the border of Linby and Hucknall are imminent.

The new offices which will cost an estimated £15.7million will replace County Hall in West Bridgford as the Council's base.

If the plans are given the go-ahead, the current County Hall building could close and employees relocated to Linby. There are up to 1200 Local Authority staff currently working in County Hall.

Speaking exclusively to Hucknall Nub News, Councillor Keith Girling, chairman of the Economic Development and Asset Management committee said: "It's going to save us over a million pounds a year because it's an environmentally friendly building, the technology's going to be there and everything like that so in 15 years we'll have paid for it. For a building of that stature and size, to have it all paid for in 15 years, that's a good investment."

The Council has already pledged to invest the money it will save into the County's roads which Councillor Girling says they "recognise as not good."

He went on to describe the move as "good news for Hucknall."

He said: "County Hall that's been the headquarters of the County Council since its inception is now going to be there at Top Wighay, I know it's not in Hucknall but it's less than a mile away.

"Actual County Council services are going to be delivered in Hucknall right next to the town so they can access all the services where normally they'd have to go to West Bridgford. So that's us demonstrating we value Hucknall."

The decision to move onto Hucknall's doorstep is due to the central location that the town offers. This will mean that the headquarters will generally be more convenient and accessible to the number of people who need to work and meet there.

This project is just a small part of the Council's ongoing review of its £700m property portfolio, with buildings deemed surplus to requirement due to be sold in the coming months, and others to be improved to ensure they serve their purpose effectively.

Councillor Girling acknowledges this is a huge task but is proud of the work his committee has already completed.

"It's a lot of properties, you can't do it overnight. The committee I'm chairman of started in May, we've not been going a year yet and we've already done loads."

The leader of the Council Ben Bradley told Nub News that members had not yet decided what to do with the existing County Hall building, by the River Trent in West Bridgford.

"We're investing a lot of money in the site at Top Wighay which will be a large and significant site in terms of service delivery and staffing," he said.

"But it will save us a lot of money in running costs… nearly £1.5million a year in things like heating and maintenance.

"The future of County Hall [in West Bridgford] isn't quite certain yet. We've started a review of not just County Hall but Trent Bridge House which is next door and also Meadow House which is in Mansfield.

"Clearly County Hall is a big expensive building and at the minute hybrid working means it's not fully utilised. So, we need to look at that. But we've not decided quite yet what we're going to do with it.

"We've got options. We could stay in it or stay in part of it. Until we make that decision we can't make decisions about staff."

However, Councillor Bradley confirmed that the existing County Hall building could close completely.

He added: "If anything like that did happen we would go through that process properly with all the staff and make sure that it was properly managed and understood.

"And if we did decide to move out of County Hall, that doesn't mean necessarily that all the staff would move out of West Bridgford, because we do have other buildings down there.

"But we're going from 17 buildings down to nine. We're going to have a significantly reduced cost to tax-payers and significantly nicer, greener buildings.

"It's a really good programme – and it's a £15million investment in Hucknall."