Hundreds of staff working out of Nottingham’s Eastcroft depot will be moved to the City Council’s Loxley House headquarters under a new cost-saving plan.
Nottingham City Council provides heat and hot water to 5,000 homes and more than 100 commercial properties by incinerating waste at the Eastcroft site, on Cattle Market Road.
A number of buildings at the depot are ageing, including the Tyne and Medway buildings where staff working in energy, parking services, and catering departments are based.
Under new plans the council will be mothballing the buildings and moving the staff to Loxley House, with a view to eventually demolishing the them.
“[The] Tyne and Medway buildings are both in poor condition,” council delegated decision documents say.
“The cost for refurbishing these to an acceptable minimum standard is estimated at £500,000.
“Mothballing is likely to be a precursor to potential demolition in the medium-term as part of a wider depot strategy to reconfigure parking and circulation at Eastcroft.”
Meanwhile the council has allocated £185,000 to refurbish the Humber building on the site.
The money will be spent on creating new staff welfare facilities and a learning zone for around 450 workers.
A modular shower and toilet block will be placed in the yard area to replace existing shower and toilet facilities in the nearby Medway building.
The refurbishment and mothballing of the two other buildings will provide the council with an annual saving of £78,000.
“The expenditure would only be incurred as a one-off in year as the programme of works is expected to take 16 weeks, but the service area would need to ensure that any further costs relating to the refurbishment works are met within their budget responsibility,” documents add.
“The closure of these sites would generate an annual savings of an estimated £78,000 from ending the cleaning, energy, repairs and maintenance costs.”
The work comes on top of plans to demolish and rebuild a waste transfer station because of “dangerous” working conditions.
Before waste is incinerated it is sent to the transfer station where it is treated and managed.
The council says if the transfer station building is not demolished and rebuilt, it would “significantly put the life of employees at risk, or cause life-threatening
injuries”.
In total more than £500,000 is required for the project.
• Further £109,000 needed to rebuild Eastcroft Waste Transfer Station
• Nottingham City Council extends lease of land near Eastcroft Depot
