HORSHAM council is continuing its preparations to remove its vehicle depot away from the Horsham city centre.
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Council's infrastructure director John Martin confirmed in September that the council was undertaking preliminary planning to relocate the facility from Selkirk Drive, Horsham.
Mr Martin said the actual relocation of the depot was "some years away".
Councillors passed a motion at the council's ordinary meeting on November 25 to adopt a number of recommendations regarding the site.
These included proceeding with a remedial action plan at the depot as a priority; revising the council's 2019-20 Budget with an allocation of $250,000 for works and monitoring; and considering a further allocation for the works as part of the 2020-21 Budget preparation process.
In his report to the council, engineering services manager Mazen Aldaghstani said there were a number of reasons why the council was considering the relocation.
"Council has been investigating moving from its depot facility due to the outgrown depot operation and the incompatibility of heavy fleet movements through the Central Business District," he said.
"The depot site requires an environmental audit if a change in land use, for example to residential, was to occur."
He said an investigation into the site had flagged a potential fuel tank leak, and a subsequent tank integrity test identified that the underground petroleum and one diesel storage system at the site had been leaking.
"A project meeting was held in July to discuss the end land use requirements and logistics to remove and undertake remediation of the underground storage tanks being the primary source of the site contamination," he said.
"The environmental auditor reviewed the investigation report, provided comments on works undertaken to date and asserted the need to develop a work program around undertaking remediation during the summer of 2019-20.
"A remediation plan has been reviewed and agreed to by the environmental auditor. Remediation is estimated to cost from $703,500 to $1,582,000.
"The timeframe for the full remediation plan is not precise, but is nominally within around four to five years."
At the council's meeting, Councillor David Grimble said he was happy to support the motion, however was concerned about the timeline of remediation.
"(This idea) is a refection of the previous council that decided to remove the saleyards from the CBD to allow our city to develop and transform the site into a high quality residential area," he said.
"Removing the depot certainly has significant support in this chamber and in the council plan. I'm hoping it will happen before the next four to five years."
Cr Pam Clarke agreed with Cr Grimble.
"Let's hope that timeline is the worst case scenario and it can happen sooner rather than later," she said.
Councillors passed the motion unanimously.
See Horsham council's full November agenda below
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