Blackburn with Darwen Council to spend £1.7m on new vehicles

Details of the upgrade programme are revealed to Blackburn with Darwen Council's executive board meeting on Thursday in a report by environment boss Councillor Jim Smith.

The spend will save money in the long run on maintenance, fuel and vehicle hire and cover the bins, gritting, highway repairs, minibuses and more.

The latest stage of the council's vehicle replacement programme follows a decision earlier this month to spend £980,660 on purchasing eight new lorries to collect food waste.

Cllr Smith's report says: "The council’s vehicle replacement programme has highlighted that several vehicles in the council’s fleet need to be replaced to reduce the financial impact from increased maintenance costs, vehicle hire costs and poor fuel efficiency due to the age of the vehicles.

"Vehicle failures can also affect the delivery of key services to the public and can lead to reputational damage to the council.

Cllr Jim Smith has set out the spending plan "Vehicle replacement will also help the council to achieve emission targets where is it possible to purchase new vehicles which run on alternative fuels.

"New replacement vehicles are required across a range of services including refuse and recycling, the amenities service, highway, building, cultural services, welfare services and youth services.

"The cost of the new vehicles will be funded from a £1.7m budget earmarked in the 2023- 2026 capital programme for vehicle replacement.

"The electrical supply to Davyfield Road depot needs to be increased to allow for additional electric vehicle charging points.

"The council has a fleet of 17 refuse collection vehicles.

"The vehicles are of varying ages. The oldest two are now seven or eight years old, increasingly unreliable with increased maintenance costs, and increased costs for overtime to ensure service completion, and to ensure the income generated from trade waste is not lost.

"The highways service has seven 4x4 gritting vehicles (one being 41 years old).

"The age of the vehicles and their reliability is putting a huge strain on the service. The cost of a standard gritter is approximately £100,000 and the cost to replace the Unimog (which is 41 years old) starts at £175,000 and could reach upwards of £220,000.

"The highways team have two hired 3.5-tonne vehicles. The intention is to replace them with 7.5-tonne vehicles.

"The cost to replace these vehicles is £75,000 each offset against the costs for hiring vehicles.

"A decision to purchase a transportable tarmac hot box has been explored. The intention is to fit the hot box to one of our existing vehicles at a cost of £40,000.

"The building services team have a number of vehicles of varying ages.

"It is proposed these seven vehicles are replaced with electric-powered vehicles. The approximate cost is £30,000 each.

"The building services team also has several small 3.5-tonne tippers. Two are included in the replacement programme. The cost is approximately £40,000 each.

"The amenities team and the highways team have several 7.5-tonne tippers.

"Two are over 13 years old and have become unreliable and need to be replaced.

"The welfare team have six large minibuses - one of which is 16 years old and increasingly unreliable. The approximate cost of a new diesel vehicle is £75,000.

"The youth services team has two minibuses, each 17 years old. The approximate cost for each vehicle is £60,000."