More details on city council boundary change plan

Councillor Neghat Khan said she was not afraid to stand alone on the idea of boundary changes

Nottingham City Council's leader has revealed more details about its plan to reform local government by changing the city's boundaries.

Residents of the city and the county have been asked to share their views on proposals to replace the existing council structure with two new unitary councils.

Two options are formally on the table as part of a public consultation – and now the city council is proposing a third option where the city boundary expands into parts of Rushcliffe, Gedling and Broxtowe.

The authority's Labour leader Neghat Khan said certain areas which were not currently part of the city boundary, such as West Bridgford, Carlton and Beeston "relate more to the city".

Nottingham City Council has produced a map - the pink area would form one authority and the green area would form the other

The city council has produced a map with rough guidelines of which boundaries could be changed, after the government announced it wanted to merge some local authorities in an attempt to streamline services.

But the nine authority leaders in Nottingham and Nottinghamshire are at loggerheads over the plans with no agreement in sight.

According to the map, parts of Broxtowe, including Beeston, Toton, Bramcote, Stapleford and Nuthall, would join the city area.

In Gedling, Carlton, Arnold and Burton Joyce would form part of the city.

Rushcliffe would be halved to include West Bridgford, Ruddington, Keyworth, East Leake and Sutton Bonington within the city area.

Remaining parts of the districts would join with another authority made up of Mansfield, Ashfield, Newark and Sherwood, and Bassetlaw.

'It's not fair'

"For me, a boundary review is the best option", Khan said.

"We're not doing this based on politics, we are looking at how people relate.

"If you go to hospital, do you go to QMC (Queen's Medical Centre) or do you go to Newark?

"A lot of people come to the city for work reasons and nights out but don't pay for the services. I don't think it's fair.

"Only the city council is exploring it [this option] in more detail. I have people who think the boundary review is the right thing to do but they don't think it can happen in the timeframe.

"I'm not afraid to stand alone on something that I strongly believe can be done."

External consultancy firm PricewaterhouseCoopers is modelling the city council's plan and will report back in September.

The two core options currently being considered as part of a public consultation, known as 1b and 1e.

Option 1b would be a new unitary authority combining Nottingham, Broxtowe, and Gedling, with a second new unitary authority for the rest of Nottinghamshire.

This is how option 1b would look

Option 1e would involve a new unitary authority combining Nottingham, Broxtowe, and Rushcliffe, with a second new unitary authority for the rest of Nottinghamshire.

Councils must submit their proposals to government by November.

City councillors have previously complained that the authority raises relatively little through council tax because about 80% of the city's properties are in bands A and B.

This is how option 1e would look

Rushcliffe Borough Council's leader Neil Clarke described the city council's plan as a "land grab".

He said: "If you bear in mind that some of the outer villages are on the Leicestershire border, they have no possible identity with the city area.

"It doesn't make sense. I think people by and large identify with Rushcliffe."

Councillor Milan Radulovic says the city council's "eleventh hour" plan "seems to be ill-conceived and ill-thought through"

Broxtowe Borough Council leader Milan Radulovic, who is part of the Broxtowe Alliance independent party, said he would vote for none of the options available, with Broxtowe joining the city under both option 1e and 1b.

He also disagreed with the city's new proposals, adding: "It now seems they want to hack off pieces of Broxtowe, Rushcliffe and Gedling to give the council tax base a huge increase.

"There are no options on the table which consider service delivery, they are all about finance."

Councillor John Clarke wants Gedling to join a north Nottinghamshire authority

Gedling's leader John Clarke, who said he was backing option 1e, has apologised for comments he made last week, when he compared Nottingham City Council to Putin and said Gedling could be "raided" like Ukraine.

He said he had used the "wrong wording" at the time, but added "this seems to me like it's cherry-picking".

When asked about his comments, Khan said she was "disgusted" and accused Clarke of "scaremongering".

"It isn't what I expected from a seasoned councillor," she added.

Responding to the "land grab" allegations made by other leaders, Khan said: "If we wanted higher council tax, we would go for 1e [where the city joins Rushcliffe].

"It's not about that, it's about doing the right thing and making sure it works."

She added that the city's financial health is improving after the authority declared itself effectively bankrupt in November 2023.