The first phase of regenerating the Old London Road depot site in Penrith with a purpose-built facility for Eden District Council’s environmental services contractor Amey is now complete and the work has taken approximately 10 months due to remediation of contaminated land from the adjoining former gas works, and cost around £630,000.
Eden District Council’s Services Portfolio Holder Adrian Todd, said: “The new depot building has created a modern workplace for Amey’s staff and provides a facility to meet the needs for this Council service for years to come. The design is well laid out over two floors with well-equipped meeting and training rooms, offices, welfare facilities and accessible washroom/showers. I am delighted with the end result.”
The new building is designed to accommodate up to 25 office based Amey staff and the equipment required to operate refuse collection, street cleansing, footway lighting, flooding response, building and grounds maintenance services across the District. The two-storey building is approximately 1050m2 square metres overall, significantly altered and extended from a dilapidated former vehicle maintenance shed, and now also houses Eden District Council’s archives and stores.
Andy Turner, Account Manager for Amey, said: “The team and I are thrilled with the new facility in Penrith. We now have space that enables us to manage and store our equipment safely as well as providing everyday facilities for our staff and the Council to use which include improved training rooms, where we hold our safety briefings and management meetings, as well as modern washroom facilities.”
The Old London Road depot in Penrith is an 8,150 sq metre site and used to be covered with a range of buildings from garages, stores and Portacabins that were all coming to the end of their useful life, these have now all been demolished.
Eden District Council’s Leader, Councillor Kevin Beaty said: “Investing in the Old London Road site has helped to enhance the appearance of the immediate area and the transformation of the depot site means that the operational area needed for delivering the environmental services contract is now much smaller. This has enabled us to look at creating seven new light industrial business units for rent close to Penrith town centre, where we know there is a commercial demand for this type of facility. The units will help existing businesses develop into new premises and provide an ideal start-up location for new businesses and hopefully help towards creating new jobs in the area. This is just one of the ways the Council is working commercially to create assets to help businesses to grow and generate revenue to support Council services.”
For more information about Eden District Council visit www.eden.gov.uk
