Brunswick Park site set to become central base for council street cleaning vehicles, reports Simon Allin, Local Democracy Reporter

The Oakleigh Road Depot will be expanded under council plans (credit Google) — Oakleigh Road Depot will be expanded under council plans (credit Google)

Barnet councillors have approved almost £20million of improvement works to a depot that will be used as a single base for the borough’s street scene services.

The works will enable Oakleigh Road Depot in Brunswick Park to take on services currently based at two other sites; nearby North London Business Park and a waste depot owned by Harrow Council.

According to a report, consolidating the services at one site will ultimately save the council more than £400,000.

Oakleigh Road Depot was opened in 2017 but had to undergo repair works in 2019 to prevent ground subsidence that had caused cracks to appear in an access road. The council now wants to use neighbouring land previously used by private firms to expand its operations at the site.

Works totalling £8.2m to carry out resurfacing and drainage improvements at part of the site, in addition to further measures such as CCTV installation, are expected to be completed next month.

Councillors approved further resurfacing and drainage works – deemed urgent because of the “poor condition” of parts of the site recently acquired by the council – during a meeting of the policy and resources committee on Wednesday.

Plans for a welfare unit and a permanent salt storage facility were also approved. One proposed benefit of the depot consolidation works is to enable the winter road-gritting service to operate from one location instead of travelling over the border from Harrow.

The report reveals the additional works will bring the total cost to £19.8m – up from a previous estimate of £18.7m – because of “issues relating to ground conditions, inflationary pressures, as well as an increase in project scope”. Borrowing costs have also increased, the report notes.

Councillors welcomed the report but raised concerns over a section stating that the costs of the work “will be subject to change due to the uncertainty in relation to the ground conditions”.

Council officers said the section of the site most recently acquired post the “largest risk” but “thorough investigations” were underway and allowances had been made for the risks.

The committee voted unanimously to approve the depot consolidation works.

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