Upgrade and increase use of our facilities

We are considering how best to improve Southbrook Resource Recovery Park and Oxford Transfer Station so they meet the district’s needs over the coming decades.

Both facilities were built in 1998. Given their age, and the increase in usage with population growth, they need investment to keep meeting demand.

Expanding the existing sites would meet demand for the next 20–25 years, but they don’t have enough physical space to meet another 50–100 years of growth.

The Council is looking at the following options:

1. Improve existing facilities

We know some current services could be improved to meet growth for the next 20-25 years.

For Southbrook, we have some space to provide expanded recycling and waste diversion options, a much larger second-hand shop, and to expand the green-waste drop-off and rubbish pit. We are also looking to build an education centre, repair facilities and a community garden at the front of the site.

The planned upgrades would mean traffic would flow faster, and an increase in capacity. Funding for this upgrade is included in the Long Term Plan, and may come at a higher cost for users or ratepayers, but will result in a much better service for our customers, and will increase landfill diversion.

For Oxford, which has a mostly rural community customer base, we are looking at installing a weighbridge so we can charge by weight as we do at Southbrook, and constructing concrete bunkers for scrap metal and green waste. We also want to find out whether there is support for extending the opening hours and/or having a recycling facility that is always accessible, but these changes may come at a higher cost for users or ratepayers.

2. Build a new facility to replace Southbrook Resource Recovery Park

We are exploring whether we retire Southbrook and build a new, larger facility at a new site. This would provide even more opportunities for recycling, reuse, repair and education, as well as better options for difficult waste types such as construction/builders’ waste, but will come at a higher cost as we would have to build the facility from scratch on a new site. This would ideally meet between 50 to 100 years of growth/demand.

We are currently in an investigation phase but know the current site in Southbrook is valuable and would seek to sell this to help offset the cost of creating the new facility, to offset the land purchase and higher construction costs.