Two council highways depots 'in need of £3m repairs' set for permanent closure
Two highways depots will be closed by a council, which says they would cost up to £3 million to repair.
Shropshire Council's depots at Bridgnorth and Hodnet have both been closed since May last year after concerns over the condition of the sites.
The council's assistant director for infrastructure, Steve Smith, said that the sites had been subject to a health and safety inspection which had discovered severe corrosion on the salt barn at Bridgnorth, and large cracks in buildings at Hodnet.
The closure had sparked a strong reaction from Bridgnorth residents, and Councillor Julia Buckley, with hundreds of people signing a petition against the move.
However, Shropshire Council's Cabinet is next week expected to approve the closure of both sites – saying it has been convinced by evidence gathered over the past 12 months that the move will not see a deterioration in service.
Mr Smith said that the repairs for both would cost between £2m and £3m, and the closure would result in an annual saving of around £50,000.
Richard Marshall, Shropshire Council’s Cabinet member for highways, said: "One of the key responsibilities of the council is ensuring we get the best value for money for the council tax payer and when we look at the analysis of the last 12 months services have improved in the vast majority of areas."
Concerns have previously been raised over the closure – about emergency responses such as flooding, repairs to roads, and for gritting.
Mr Smith said that the council had spent the 12 months assessing data and said there had been no drop off in performance, or risk to the public as a result of the closure.
He said: "It was never about cost saving, was about about operationally, how it would work and delivering the services communities needed."
He added: "We had the flooding last year and we were able to distribute sand bags and our response was no different to when the depot would have been there.
"We had quite a significant winter last year which tested whether we could run the winter service without that depot and everything was able to be done in exactly the same amount of time.
"We have really tested it and what has really become apparent is by consolidating a large amount of staff together it has allowed Kier to get more efficiency out of their staff, which has improved the number of pot holes we have been able to repair."
The authority stressed that gritting would not be affected by the closure because it is a pro-active measure organised as a result of weather reports and planned in advance – with the work factored into runs around the county.
Mr Marshall added: "To help us decide whether to invest in these two depots, or permanently close them, we’ve been monitoring and evaluating the performance of the highways teams across the county for the past year to see whether there has been any drop-off in service compared to before the depots were closed.
“The result of this review is that there has been no impact on service delivery as a result of the interim closures.
“Indeed, since Bridgnorth and Hodnet depots were closed, we have seen significantly improved performance and efficiency in all of the main service areas delivered from our highways depots.
“There is therefore a very strong case for their permanent closure, and it’s in fact typical of a council area of Shropshire’s size to be serviced by two to three highway depots.
“Some local councillors have voiced concerns regarding the closure but this is not backed up by performance measures which show improvements in all metrics.
“Some concerns were raised about lack of gritting activity in Bridgnorth last winter. These concerns were investigated we found there had been some misinterpretation regarding our winter maintenance policy and operational plan. The policy does not include the treatment of footways, other than during periods of prolonged sub-zero temperatures. There has been no change to the policy or level of service since 2018.”
The council has said no jobs will be lost as a result of the decision.
Mr Smith said that if the closures go ahead then the council would look at whether it could use the site for another purpose, or community purpose – and that if it was not suitable they could sell both off.
