New Forest District Council officially opens new £7.8m waste and services depot in Hardley
A NEW £7.8m waste and services depot has been officially opened in the Forest.
As reported in the A&T, New Forest District Council gave itself permission to build the site at Hardley industrial estate, replacing Claymeadow depot in Totton.
It had originally budgeted to spend £5.5m on the facility, housing new offices, a workshop and storage space, but an increased figure was later approved, in part due to higher-than-expected building costs.
The site will also be used to store vehicles for refuse and recycling collections, ground maintenance and street cleaning, and as a base for pest control and corporate tree teams covering the district.
NFDC chair Cllr David Hawkins was joined by grounds maintenance operative Sam Course, who recently completed an apprenticeship with the council, to carry out the official ribbon cutting ceremony.
The council’s cabinet member for environment and sustainability, Cllr Geoffrey Blunden, said: “Hardley depot has been designed to provide larger and modernised facilities, and to support our hard-working staff as we invest in and improve the important services they provide for residents.
“We have designed our yard area to have the space to host our new food waste vehicles, which will be arriving later this year as part of the third phase of our new waste and recycling service.”
He added: “We’re aiming to achieve BREEAM ‘excellent’ on this project, as part of our commitment to reducing our impact on the environment, and I’m very much looking forward to seeing the positive impact our new depot will have across the district.”
BREEAM, a world-leading certification which grades the sustainability of buildings, was launched in 1990 by the Building Research Establishment to set standards for the environmental performance of commercial and multi-residential buildings.
Last year there was controversy after NFDC’s £9.5m Platinum Jubilee Business Park in Ringwood failed to achieve a ‘very good’ BREEAM rating – which was among the conditions under which planning permission was granted.
Contracts manager Ben Alford of Knights Brown, which built the depot, said: “The new state-of-the-art depot at Hardley is a modern and welcoming space that has really transformed the working environment for council employees, which will ultimately benefit local residents who use the council’s valuable services.”
The council says the former Claymeadow site will be used for bin storage while it rolls out its new wheelie bin scheme before further use of the depot is “reviewed”.
