Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council to spend more than £1.5m on vehicles, plant and equipment

An officers’ report was presented to members at an Environmental Services Committee meeting on Wednesday, April 17, and sought approval to procure £1,555,750 worth of vehicles, plant and equipment during the 2024-25 financial year.

An officer said the vehicles were essential to “maintain the continuity and enhance the efficiency of Operations services”.

They added: “The Operations function is required to use a range of specialist vehicles and plant at different locations/facilities. A number of vehicles have been identified for replacement due to age/cost to maintain or are presently on continuous hire.”

They recommended members approve the procurement of vehicles and equipment “in order to reduce maintenance/hire costs and maximise service efficiency due to reduced down time”.

Required equipment includes refuse collection vehicles (RCV), costing £210,000 each, at Ballymoney, Ballycastle and Rathlin Island, replacement hook loaders at Limavady and Coleraine, and cardboard compactors at both Limavady and Ballycastle.

An officer said: “When members look at the age of some of those, the business case certainly stacks up for replacement. We have four RCVs, one of which is a smaller VacPak for getting on and off Rathlin Island, and we have two hook loaders used to servicing household recycling centres, and we have one side bin truck for generally assisted bin collections.”

DUP Alderman Mark Fielding, who chaired Wednesday’s meeting, said “It is at a significant cost and shows the increase there has been. Since 2015 we’ve tried to keep within a budget of £1 million for fleet for estates and operations, and we’ve almost had to double this year with the increased cost of buying a vehicle. Back in 2015 we were buying RCV’s for about £140,000, so you can see the significant increase in that period of time.”

UUP Alderman Sandra Hunter asked if the council was not moving to side lifted RCV’s across the whole district. An officer said the council’s strategy was not moving towards them, as they feel the system in place is satisfactory.

“There’s a significant increased cost associated with one-armed machines,” an officer said. “And although they’re used in some rural councils to good effect, standard RCV’s at this stage are the way forward.”