Nottingham Castle: Frustration as no date given for reopening

The castle and its grounds have been closed to the public since November

Campaigners say they are disappointed after the city council said it could not yet give a date for the reopening of Nottingham Castle.

The castle and its grounds have been closed to the public since the trust that ran it announced it was going into liquidation in November.

Nottingham City Council had said it planned to provide an update on when it would reopen by the end of this month.

Now the authority says it is not yet in a position to give a date.

The attraction was brought back under the control of the council after Nottingham Castle Trust went into liquidation 18 months after a £30m renovation.

Tom Unterrainer, who is part of a group campaigning for the site to be reopened, said the authority's failure to give a date was "incredibly disappointing".

He said: "Our campaign very clearly said from the start we recognise that reopening the castle building itself might be more complicated but get those gates open and get people into those grounds.

"They haven't even been able to do that, so what is going on here?"

A sign outside Nottingham Castle set out the situation for visitors

Pavlos Kotsonis, the city council's portfolio holder for leisure, culture and planning, told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: "Since the site was handed back to the council from Nottingham Castle Trust's liquidators, our initial focus has been to ensure that the site and the collections are safe, secure and appropriately managed.

"We have also been reviewing options of how best to reopen the site to the public.

"We are looking at how this can be done in a way which ensures the future of the castle will be viable without creating additional risk to the council and the taxpayer.

"We also need to ensure that any proposals meet with the agreement of our funding partners and we continue to have positive meetings with them.

"We are making good progress on this work but are not yet in a position to announce an opening date.

"As soon as we can share more news with the city, we will."