Nottingham City Council’s and Rushcliffe Borough Council’s waste teams have successfully completed the transition to a shared depot site at Eastcroft, realising valuable savings for both authorities.

The collaboration sees the two authorities continue their respective services, with residents in both areas seeing no change to bin collections. 

Rushcliffe’s team bid farewell to their Abbey Road depot in West Bridgford earlier in May due to a long-held ambition to see the site redeveloped for housing. 

They approached Nottingham City Council to explore sharing the London Road site and quickly found a solution to accommodate Rushcliffe’s 80 staff and 30-strong vehicle fleet that would see services unaffected.

Councillor Sally Longford, Deputy Leader and Portfolio Holder for Energy and Environment at Nottingham City Council, said: “This is a great example of partnership working and we’re delighted to welcome colleagues from Rushcliffe Borough Council to our Eastcroft depot.

“We have been working together on this project for a number of months and it’s great to have brought it to fruition. Rushcliffe have been able capitalise on additional capacity that we have on site, while the City Council receives a rent at commercial rate and an unused depot building has also been refurbished as part of the agreement.

“Rushcliffe have been bringing domestic waste to our incinerator for some time so it makes perfect sense for them relocate their refuse collection service. In the current economic climate of damaging cuts to our budgets, we are increasingly having to find new ways to save money and provide the best value to local taxpayers.”

Rushcliffe Borough Council Leader, Councillor Simon Robinson, said the move was a great example of local councils joining forces to make assets work for residents.

He said: “This collaboration further highlights our approach to work with partners to make services work more effectively and in this case it was a great opportunity to share the site to benefit both authorities.

“Importantly, there is no further impact on the environment with no added mileage for our vehicles to complete. The incinerator where our grey bin waste is converted to energy is adjacent to the site and our vehicles were already serviced here.

“It is not a shared service but this has been a significant change for the team after four decades at Abbey Road. The transition has been very smooth though and it shows again how we assess effective ways to make our resources work and continue to deliver great services.”

Picture shows, left to right, Rushcliffe Borough Council’s Executive Manager for Neighbourhoods Dave Banks; Rushcliffe Borough Council Leader, Councillor Simon Robinson, Nottingham City Council Leader, Councillor David Mellen; Nottingham City Council Deputy Leader, Councillor Sally Longford; and Nottingham City Council’s Head of Facilities Management and Building Services, David King.