SWANSEA Council’s fleet of refuse lorries and other vehicles will move to a new depot in Llansamlet.
The authority will share a warehouse site at Swansea Enterprise Park with its existing occupant, skin and bodycare company Dr Organic, but use a different access.
Council staff who maintain the lorries or who drive and operate them will have to park at a different site 800m away and make their way to the new depot, although the depot will have 30 bike spaces.
Some members of the council’s planning committee felt sorry for the workers when they discussed the application at a meeting on December 2. Cllr Mary Jones said “they won’t want to be drudging along” to the depot in wet weather. Cllr Peter May agreed, saying: “It’s not going to be good for staff morale.”
The reconfigured warehouse and yard outside will be home to just under 90 refuse lorries and smaller tipper trucks that are currently based nearer the city centre at Pipehouse Wharf, Morfa Road, plus a small number of other vehicles.
New kennels, stables and a storage building will also be built at the depot and new greenery, bird and bat boxes added. Lorries and vans entering and leaving the site will do so via Benson Way to the side while Dr Organic vehicles will use Alberto Road at the front.
Cllr Mike Lewis said this would introduce a lot of heavy traffic onto Benson Way and wanted to know what impact if would have on a MoT centre there. A council officer said the authority was satisfied it could operate the new depot without impacting other users in the vicinity.
The committee went on to unanimously approve the application which is subject to conditions including that the 80-space car park 800m away on Ferryboat Close is, subject to separate planning approval, completed before the depot is brought into use. A travel plan encouraging staff to consider public transport or cycling must also be submitted and approved.
The relocation of the vehicles, kennels and stables will free up the council’s small depot at Home Farm, Singleton Park, Sketty, as well as Pipehouse Wharf. The planning committee report said the move would enable Pipehouse Wharf to be redeveloped, although no firm plans are in place yet, and that alternative uses of Home Farm would be considered.
