Nottinghamshire County Council is planning on giving out a £3.5 million loan towards demolishing depot buildings in “critical” condition.
In a report to be discussed in next Wednesday’s (September 10) cabinet meeting, three “life-expired” highway depots across the county could benefit from £4.68 million works bring them back up to safety standards.
The council is set to fund £3.48 million of this through a loan given to VIA, the council-owned company in charge of managing the county’s roads since 2016.
The depots are dotted across the county, with Blyth Depot in the north in Bassetlaw serving the A1 and A614 routes, Stephenson Way in the east in Newark serving the A1, A46 and A17 routes and Gamston Depot in Rushcliffe, serving the A52 and A6011 routes.
According to the report, buildings on these sites are “past the end of their life” and have reached a “critical state”, with some already closed or facing “imminent closure”.
If the cabinet approves the money for the projects, Gamston Depot will have several buildings demolished and a two-storey office building and two steel-frame buildings for storage built. This would be expected to take 42 weeks to complete and would require the most funding at £3.36 million.
The Stephenson Way Depot would have its office building demolished and replaced over a 16-week period, costing £1.08 million and Blyth Depot’s office and toilet building would be demolished and replaced over four weeks and would cost around £140,000.
The report says the deteriorating condition of the buildings is a “growing risk to staff safety and welfare” and says: “Without investment, this will lead to increased costs, either through the need for temporary hired buildings or, where space constraints prevent this, the further relocation of services to out-of-area sites.”
With the projects total cost, £1.2 million would be funded initially from VIA, with the remaining £3.5 million funded by a loan from the County Council which VIA would have to repay over future years.
The council’s cabinet will decide on these improvement works next week.
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