Here is a summary of the agenda for the Derbyshire County Council Cabinet meeting on 24 July 2025. The Cabinet was scheduled to discuss the Treasury Management Annual Report, allocations from the Children's Services SEND Capital Budget, acceptance of the Trees Capital Delivery Grant, the Local Transport Plan Highways Capital Settlement, and a proposal for new hub accommodation in Amber Valley and Erewash. Some items, relating to the Buxton Crescent Hotel and supply of street lighting, were scheduled to be discussed in private due to commercially sensitive information.

Local Transport Plan Highways Capital Settlement

The Cabinet was scheduled to consider the Local Transport Plan Highways Capital Settlement and Public Transport Funding 2025-26. The report pack noted that the East Midlands Combined County Authority (EMCCA) was set up in 2024 and is now in receipt of significant funding allocations from central government, to enable it to invest in the region's transport, regeneration and highways infrastructure. As one of four Constituent Authorities, Derbyshire County Council has been allocated funding from EMCCA for 2025/26 in order to support delivery of its functions within the County. This includes:

• Local Transport Plan Funding: Highways Maintenance Block and Integrated Transport Block
• Bus Grant Award funding, Bus Service Improvement Plan (BSIP) funding and other one-off funding allocations for Public Transport
• Delivery of capital and revenue regeneration projects/programmes.

The report pack stated that the Local Transport Plan Funding Award for 2025-26 had been confirmed, but was delayed by the government's Autumn 2024 spending review. The amount of funding the council receives is based on the application of various criteria relating to its highway assets, such as the total length of road (by road type), the number of maintainable bridge structures, and the number of lamp columns that need to be maintained. The award generally consists of two main funding blocks: The Highway Maintenance Block (HMB) and the Integrated Transport Block (ITB). The report pack included a table showing the proposed allocation of 2025-26 LTP funding:

The report pack stated that one of the implications of an enhanced highways programme is that additional Traffic Management is required to deliver the schemes. It was noted that Cabinet had already approved to raise the upper limit of the existing traffic management contract from £2.4m to £5.5m at its meeting on 25 July 2024. In order to deliver the current programme, it was estimated that a further £2.7m of contract approvals is required taking the total spend under the existing contract to £8.2m.

The Bus Grant Award funding was confirmed by EMCCA on 13 June 2025, allocating £7.750m to the Council for the purposes of delivering the BSIP in 2025-26.

New Amber Valley and Erewash Hub Accommodation

The Cabinet was scheduled to discuss a report regarding the rationalisation and relocation of Mercian Close Offices in Ilkeston and the Parkwood Centre in Alfreton to The Grammar in Heanor.

The report pack noted that the lease of Mercian Close Offices is due to expire on 29 September 2025, and the landlord has proposed a new 20-year lease. The Council can either commit to the new term or vacate the property. The report pack stated that Mercian Close Offices are located on Manners Road Industrial Estate, Ilkeston, and provides a Gross Internal Area (GIA) of 2,049m² comprising open plan offices, meeting rooms and client facing spaces. 253 full time equivalents (FTE) are based at the site across Business Services, Children's Services, Adult Social Care and Health.

The Parkwood Centre is a Council owned property which is located within Alfreton Park. It is made up of two blocks, upper and lower, totalling a GIA of 1,913m². The lower block is a former LD day centre which was closed as part of a service redesign on 31 August 2025. The upper block currently provides office accommodation for Adult Social Care and Health teams, with 200 FTEs based at the site having access to 63 desks. There is also a large conference space which is used by teams from across the county for meeting and training purposes.

The report pack stated that the Property team completed an options appraisal to identify the optimal way of achieving the capacity required by teams and services currently based at Mercian Close Offices. As part of this process, it has identified that there was also an opportunity to incorporate the office space at the Parkwood Centre into the options appraisal. The outcome of the appraisal identified that the recommended option would be to pursue an opportunity at The Grammar, Heanor and spoke service delivery sites in Erewash to be provided through the existing public estate.

The Grammar is a former school building, built in 1912. Amber Valley Borough Council (AVBC) took ownership in 2022. A large amount of the renovation budget for The Grammar was provided by the Future High Streets Fund, a central government initiative designed to breathe life back into the British towns. The grant amount was £8.590m with the total invested in 3 Heanor projects set to exceed £17.000m. The Grammar site on Mundy Street is located in the district of Amber Valley adjacent to Heanor marketplace and has a GIA of 2,245m². The building offers modern, flexible and accessible spaces to support smart working. The design is still to be finalised but would include circa 150 desks, meeting rooms, conference space, 1-1 rooms as well as touchdown and breakout space. It would also provide better access to public transport for service users and staff.

The report pack stated that consolidating teams and services from both Mercian Close Offices and the Parkwood Centre to The Grammar, will create an administration hub to serve Amber Valley and Erewash. Engagement with services has highlighted the need to retain a client facing presence in Ilkeston for service users. This will be achieved by utilising the assets within DCC's existing estate or by working with partner agencies to establish spoke sites where client facing services can base themselves as required. Examples include Ilkeston Library, Cotmanhay Children's Centre and Ilkeston Town Hall. Spoke sites will be focused on delivering statutory duties and secure client meetings, with some office space to accommodate staff to facilitate these activities.

Acceptance of Trees Capital Delivery Grant

The Cabinet was scheduled to consider the acceptance of the Trees Capital Delivery Grant. The report pack stated that Derbyshire's Heartwood Community Forest (DHCF) was established in November 2023 and is part of a network of 15 Community Forests in England. The DHCF occupies a central position between the National Forest to the south and the Greenwood Community Forest in Nottinghamshire, joining up these two woodland areas. Trees are planted on pockets of available land stretching over a geographic area of approximately 289 square miles within communities along the eastern border of the County and areas in the south of the County including Amber Valley, North East Derbyshire, Bolsover, Chesterfield, Erewash and South Derbyshire.

The DHCF is fully funded (100%) by revenue and capital grants from a Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) tree planting and woodland creation programme and coordinated through England's Community Forests (ECF). Defra has a single funding agreement for the tree planting programme with ECF. This is by a Section 31 Agreement under the Local Government Act 2003 with Cheshire West and Chester Council (CWAC), who act as the accountable body on behalf of ECF. CWAC, on behalf of ECF, has offered the Council a Capital Delivery Grant (CDEL) of £3.346m for Year 6 (2025-26), based on the agreed tree planting target of 121 hectares for 2025-26. The grant funding agreement is for the period 1 April 2025 to 31 March 2040 (the offer includes 15 years of post-planting establishment costs).

Children's Services SEND Capital Budget Allocations

The Cabinet was scheduled to discuss allocations from the Children's Services SEND High Needs Capital allocation for projects at Stubbin Wood School, Ashgate Croft Special School and Brackenfield Special School.

The report pack stated that in 2017, the Department for Education (DfE) allocated a £215m fund from 2018 – 2021 to support local authorities to invest in provision for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) between birth and 25 years, to improve the quality and range of provision available to families within the local authority.

The current unallocated balance of the SEND capital budget is £20,091,347.

The report pack outlined the following allocations for approval:

• Stubbin Wood: On 9th January 2025, Cabinet approved £953,000 for this academy self-managed project to increase provision, accommodating 15 additional pupils from September 2025 The Local Authority initially supported with capital expenditure of £270,000, approved by Cabinet on 10th July 2024. Following the tender procedure, a revised budget of £1,623,000 has been identified, and an additional £400,000 is required to progress this project.
• Ashgate Croft Special School: On 10th July 2024 Cabinet approved £848,000 to provide a 4 classroom modular building as part of an SEN project. Following initial consultations, it has been identified that a traditional build is required rather than a modular building due to the specific mobility equipment to be installed, such as ceiling hoists that would be essential in this provision. The initial costings for this project have returned at £3,650,000. An additional £2,802,000 is required to progress this project to final Tender stage.
• Brackenfield Special School – Phase 2 and 3: Originally, £200,000 was approved by Cabinet, on 10th July 2024, for Phase 1 of this expansion to create additional classroom spaces at this school accommodating 15 additional children with Special Educational Needs. The tender price returned over budget and an additional £90,000 as approved by the Head of Service by delegated powers on 3rd January 2025. Phase 2 of this expansion project is for the school to take over occupancy of the adjacent Outlook Centre to accommodate further children with SEND and to make this site fully operational as a secure addition to the school. The budget costs for this phase of the expansion requires £312,300. Phase 3 of this project is to relocate a two storey building used at a previous school site, onto the Brackenfield original school site in order to accommodate additional pupils within the school who require specialist SEND places. £333,565 is required for this final stage of expansion and will include transportation costs, IT set up costs, surveys, planning requirements and additional car parking spaces to comply with initial planning requirements. The total required for approval is £645,865.

Treasury Management Annual Report

The Cabinet was scheduled to consider the Treasury Management Annual Report 2024-25. The Council's Treasury Management Strategy for 2024-25 was approved at the Council Meeting of 14 February 2024 as part of the Capital Programme Approvals, Treasury Management and Capital Strategies for 2024-25 Report. The Council has, in accordance with these, borrowed and invested significant sums of money.

The report pack stated that treasury risk management at the Council is conducted within the framework of the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA) Code, which requires the Council to approve a treasury management strategy before the start of each financial year and a semi-annual and annual treasury outturn report, with quarterly reporting of the treasury management prudential indicators.

The report pack noted that on 31 March 2025, the Council held £401.429m of borrowing and £114.375m of treasury management investments arising from its revenue and capital income and expenditure.

The Council's strategy has been to make temporary use of internal cash balances (from its own earmarked reserves and working capital) to finance its capital programme, in order to reduce risk and keep interest costs low. This is known as 'internal borrowing' and has kept borrowing below underlying levels.