Council approves lease for new workshops depot
Date published: 15 December 2015
Townsville City Council’s fleet and workshop operations at the ageing Garbutt and Bamford Lane depots will soon be relocating to new, modern facilities.
A full meeting of council today approved a contract for a leased purpose built depot facility with B.M.Webb at the company’s industrial park off Ingham Road.
The shift to a leased facility is a transitional measure until a future permanent depot is established within a 10km of the CBD as part of the council’s Workshop Facilities Master Plan.
Infrastructure Committee chairman Cr Trevor Roberts said the shift would deliver operational and economic efficiencies for the council.
"It will consolidate both workshops and the council’s waste trucks together in the one, modern depot instead of having them in two separate outdated facilities many miles apart," Cr Roberts said.
"Both the Bamford Lane and Garbutt workshops have been in operation for up to 40 years and require significant upgrades to bring them up to standard.
"Relocating operations from both depots to a combined facility will in the long run be more financially viable for the council than to upgrade and maintain the existing workshops.
"The lease arrangement is a medium term measure until the council eventually establishes a permanent depot.
"It also means that the council can look at selling the Bamford Lane site which over time has been surrounded by residential development."
Council decision follows an EOI process and subsequent call for tenders from the two short listed companies, B.M. Webb and UC1 (Urbex Group).
B.M. Webb secured the contract with a tender for annual lease charges of $659,000 plus outgoing costs which in the first year will total $109,300.
Construction of the new facility is expected to be completed by mid next year.
Staff will be consulted closely on the relocation, which is expected to begin in the second half of 2016. The workshop strategy also includes demolishing the aging fleet workshops at the Garbutt depot.
Funding for the workshops project will be provided from the council’s operational budget, starting in 2016/17.
