South Kesteven District Council hears progress report on new waste depot near Grantham

Progress is being made on the new waste depot near Grantham town centre, though it has experienced some “slippages”.

South Kesteven District Council, which approved plans for the new site in January, discussed the progress during a finance and economic overview and scrutiny meeting yesterday (Thursday, June 27).

Deputy leader Richard Cleaver (Ind) remained hopeful that the slippages would be “drawn back” through efficiencies moving forward.

Meanwhile, Coun Mark Whittington (Con) expressed concern that the £8.8 million budget wouldn’t be sufficient. Coun Max Sawyer (Ind) echoed this sentiment, saying he “wouldn’t be surprised” if the cost rose to £12 million.

Deputy chief executive Richard Wyles urged councillors to “be sympathetic to us,” noting that the costs were “playing out in real time”.

He later revealed that the council acquired the land for its strategic importance and had discussions with Amazon about potentially using it as a distribution hub.

The new facility for the council’s its waste services and ground maintenance teams is being built on the former Fenland Foods site in Turnpike Close.

After awarding the construction contract to Lindum Group in April, delays occurred during the ‘value engineering’ phase of the development.

Council documents indicate that “this element of the scheme development has taken a significant amount of time due to the requirement to ensure that the scheme quality is not compromised and to avoid any approved planning conflicts”.

Furthermore, the approved contractor “has also needed to revisit the supply chain and subcontractor pricing in order to be able to quantify in financial terms any variations to the original submitted pricing.”

The original budget for the project was approximately £8 million, with an additional £800,000 added at a later date.

Despite these setbacks, the council still believes it can meet its intended go-live date in November 2025.