2 weeks Ago By [email protected] (Oliver Pridmore)
Ben Bradley is returning to the top team of Nottinghamshire County Council just a week on from resigning as the authority's leader. Sam Smith, who took over from Councillor Bradley to lead the Conservative-run council, has announced that his predecessor will form part of his cabinet. Councillor Bradley, who had led Nottinghamshire County Council since 2021, will be the cabinet member for education and special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).
The education and SEND brief was previously held by Councillor Smith himself before he became leader. The news comes after Councillor Bradley lost in his bid to become the Conservative Party's candidate for the first ever Lincolnshire mayoral election. The recent loss came at the end of a year which has also seen Councillor Bradley lose his Mansfield seat at the general election and lose out to Labour in the East Midlands Mayor election.
Will you be voting in the local elections in May? Let us know here The next Nottinghamshire County Council election will be taking place in May 2025, when the Conservatives will attempt to retain control of the authority. Councillor Bradley says he will not stand again to serve as the councillor for Mansfield North in that election, instead focusing on his private sector work. Between now and the May election, Councillor Bradley will serve in the education and SEND brief with Councillor Nigel Moxon as his deputy.
It means Councillor Bradley can claim a special responsibility allowance on top of the money he gets as a councillor, with the special allowance given to Councillor Smith for the education and SEND brief last year being more than £20,000. Councillor Smith said: "I am delighted that Councillor Bradley has accepted the education and SEND brief as it is one of the key areas this administration is prioritising. I'm confident that Councillors Bradley and Moxon will be a formidable team when it comes to making the best decisions for the young people in Nottinghamshire.
"We're committed to making sure every young person in the county attends a good or outstanding school, maintaining our school building and maintenance programme, achieving the national target for SEND improvements and robustly monitoring school places provision. "This top team, working alongside myself as leader, are all focussed on delivering on residents' priorities across Nottinghamshire which include keeping our libraries open, maintaining a thriving youth service, expanding rural bus services, fixing our roads, expanding schools and investing more than £100 million into capital projects." The rest of the Nottinghamshire County Council cabinet will remain unchanged under Sam Smith's leadership.
This means the two men who stood against him in the council's leadership contest, Richard Jackson and Neil Clarke, will keep their roles as cabinet member for finance and cabinet member for transport and environment respectively..
