Savings to be made with council vehicle fleet

Hartlepool Council Neighbourhood Services Committee approved the vehicle and associated equipment replacement programme stretching to 2021/22.

The funding is for the vehicles - used in fields such as rubbish trucks, street sweepers, grass cutters and accessible buses for people with disabilities

After reviewing the services for the current year, maximising vehicle life and deferring replacement purchases the council has saved £1.525m from the original allocated budget for the plan.

The revised programme borrowing is for £1.780m compared to the original budget position of £3.305m.

The council then project savings in the amount spent on the vehicles for the next three years.

In total £1,663,000 of borrowing has been approved for the scheme in 2019/2020, dropping to 942,000 for 2020/2021 and £530,000 for 2021/2022.

Tony Hanson, assistant director of environmental services and neighbourhoods, said: “It is important that we ensure we provide a roadworthy fleet which has a near faultless service availability for safety and service critical vehicles.

“The replacement programme reflects the view by management that the useful life of the existing vehicles has been extended to the viable limit, taking into account the higher cost of maintaining an ageing fleet.

“Where new vehicles are planned these reflect growth of town pressures beyond the capabilities of internal service efficiency initiatives.”

The funds for the revised replacement programme for the period 2019/20 to 2021/22 will be referred to the finance and policy committee for rubber stamping.

Nic Marko , Local Democracy Reporting Service