Waste depots being culled in North Lanarkshire to save cash

Head of waste solutions Andrew McPherson presented a report to the council’s Environment and Transportation committee with an update on this process, which will initially see the number of active depots reduced to five before the final closures are implemented.

The changes are a result of a service review which determined the service would be improved by greater centralisation which would also save the council around £60,000 per year in addition to opening the option of selling the sites, with the first to close being Albert Street in Motherwell, Lady Anne Depot in Airdrie, Coshneuk in Stepps, Garrel Road in Kilsyth and New Edinburgh Road in Viewpark.

Some services will be transferred to other depots before they too close, leaving facilities in just Bellshill and Cumbernauld. All staff will be relocated.

Waste will be removed from Souterouse in Coatbridge, land services will be moved from Bellshill, while Bonkle and Netherton will be retained on a temporary basis only.

Initial plans had been to move the entire service to the Bellshill depot but on further review it was found that collection routes would be more efficient if Wardpark in Cumbernauld was used as a base, so six collection vehicles are now based there.

Significant water ingress at the Bellshill fleet workshop over the last six months has resulted in the building becoming unsafe so temporary accommodation is being arranged and the workshop will be demolished and replaced by a new building as this will be cheaper than repairing the current one. The new workshop will also be outfitted with charging points to help the council achieve its goal of operating an all-electric vehicle fleet.

The council’s land management department previously had a team based in Bellshill but this is no longer the case and instead Fleet and Waste offices have been moved there saving the council around £130,000.

Councillor William Goldie praised the move towards electric vehicles as “a very positive thing” before asking if the reduced number of depots would allow for gritters to be deployed correctly in winter and be moved elsewhere if there was a problem at one of the depots.

Mr McPherson said that as recently as last Friday his team had learned they would have to completely relocate the fleet this had been completed by Monday. Contingency arrangements would also allow for vehicles to be temporarily relocated if needed.

“It could be something as simple as a road accident right outside the entrance making us wonder how to get the vehicles out but we’ve got two accesses at our main Bellshill depot so certainly that is something that has been considered.”

Councillor Norah Mooney asked about the financial impact of the plans. “I am aware the capital budget and the revenue budget are two different things, however it does say the capital spend would be just shy of half a million to create an annual revenue of £60,000 which effectively would take eight years to hit a break even point.”

In response Mr McPherson pointed out that the council had already saved £160,000 and would make additional savings as a result of this process which was not addressed in his report

“Maybe we should have been more elaborate on that,” he said, adding that the potential capital receipts would be “fairly substantial”  due to the size of the depots which would be vacated – “well into six and seven figure sums”. Further money could be raised by selling diesel vehicles and hiring electric ones.

The committee agreed to note the report.