The charity that pays for Trent Bridge gave Nottingham City Council £2.1m in four years and set £361,804 aside for bridge repairs. Councillors want answers.
The charity set up to look after Trent Bridge gave Nottingham City Council £2.1 million in grants over four years. Over the same years it put £361,804 into its fund for repairs to the bridge.
Councillors who oversee the charity have declined to endorse its accounts until they are told how the council’s grant was worked out. The questions now go to a meeting on 21 December.
What the accounts show
The charity is the Bridge Estate. Nottingham City Council is its sole trustee, and a council committee, the Trusts and Charities Committee, acts for it. The estate owns shops and offices across the city, many on Lister Gate, and lives on the rent.
Its charitable objects, set out in its own annual report, come in a fixed order:
- to maintain and repair Trent Bridge and the approaches to it
- to build up a contingency fund for a possible new bridge or bridges over the Trent
- to spend whatever is left on improving the city and benefiting its residents
The committee report for 28 September sets out four years of figures. (Nottingham City Council, Bridge Estate accounts report) Two of those years, 2024/25 and 2025/26, are still drafts and have not been audited.
| Year | Grant to the city council | Bridge Repairs Fund | Property upkeep, including the bridge |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022/23 | £750,000 | £67,293 | £19,495 |
| 2023/24 | £571,000 | £94,511 | £102,693 |
| 2024/25 (draft) | £400,000 | £100,000 | £204,220 |
| 2025/26 (draft) | £400,000 | £100,000 | £110,941 |
| Total | £2,121,000 | £361,804 | £437,349 |
The upkeep line covers every property the charity owns, not only the bridge. The report does not split out what was spent on Trent Bridge itself.
The charity also started a separate Property Fund in 2024/25, putting £100,000 into it in each of the two draft years.
What happened at the meeting
The committee met on Monday 28 September. The meeting was webcast, and the minutes have not yet been published. This account is taken from the council’s own recording. (Nottingham City Council webcast, 28 September 2026)
Cllr Steve Battlemuch chaired the item as vice chair, because the chair was absent. He asked how each year’s grant had been set. Was it a fixed formula, or a figure the committee chose?
An officer replied that the grant is the residue left after money is put into reserves, rather than a rigid formula. The finance officer presenting the report said they had not yet seen a reserves policy for the charity. They said one would be brought to the December meeting if none exists.
Cllr Devontay Okure, new to the committee, said endorsing figures without the full information did not feel right.
Cllr Battlemuch said there had been no adequate answer on how the £750,000 for 2022/23 was calculated. From crossing it, Cllr Battlemuch believes the bridge needs work. People would ask why there was no money for that when £2 million had gone to the council in four years, the councillor said.
The committee agreed to note the report rather than endorse the accounts. The chair and vice chair will meet officers before December, and a written plan for future reporting will come back with the figures.
The accounts are also late
The report says the charity missed the Charity Commission’s deadline for its 2023/24 and 2024/25 accounts. The commission opened a compliance case as a result.
- The audited 2023/24 accounts have now been filed.
- The 2024/25 accounts were still overdue and were expected by the end of September.
- The 2025/26 accounts are due by 31 January 2027, and the council expects to meet that.
The signed letter to the auditors also flags a possible £167,770 overstatement of electricity charges in the 2023/24 accounts. The auditors did not require a change, because they judged the sum not material.
Who would pay for bridge repairs
The charity’s own annual report is frank about this. It says the council can earmark money from its Local Transport Plan for Trent Bridge, and that using the charity’s funds instead would “unnecessarily run down the value of the portfolio”. (Bridge Estate draft accounts 2024/25)
It adds that selling property could not meet “the full cost of replacing the structure”. Bridge Estate money would only be used once other routes were exhausted.
The estate’s permanent endowment, mostly its property, stood at £25.4 million at 31 March 2025 in the draft accounts. The year before, a revaluation knocked £11.6 million off the portfolio.
Why it matters now
The question has a sharper edge since Rushcliffe approved Nottingham Forest’s City Ground expansion on 16 September. Forest’s own crowd study says Trent Bridge is too narrow for the bigger crowds. Not one extra fan can be admitted until a new way across the river is approved and built.
The Bridge Estate’s second object is exactly that: a contingency fund for a new bridge. Its annual report says that object is “effectively met by the management of the property portfolio”, rather than by a separate fund.
What it means for you
- Nothing changes on the bridge today. Trent Bridge stays open and is maintained by the city council as highway authority, which can draw on the charity when needed.
- The December meeting is the one to watch. Councillors have asked for the grant method, a reserves policy and figures set out under the charity’s three objects.
- If you cross the bridge to the City Ground or the cricket, the new crossing the expansion depends on still has no published funding. The charity holds no separate fund for it.
For closures and works on the bridge and its approaches, see our roadworks and travel page.
Sources
- Trusts and Charities Committee, 28 September 2026: agenda and papers
- Bridge Estate accounts report, table 1
- Bridge Estate audited accounts 2023/24 and draft accounts 2024/25
- Council webcast of the meeting. The webcast’s captions are generated automatically, so we have summarised what was said rather than quoting it.
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