Council looking to replace ageing vehicle fleet

A local authority in Surrey is looking to replace its ageing fleet of vehicles after existing maintenance costs nearly doubled what was budgeted.

Guildford Borough Council (GBC) currently operates 191 vehicles, ranging from delivery cars to bin lorries, but officers said a majority of these are now well beyond their operational life expectancy.

A report presented to GBC's overview and scrutiny committee added the deteriorating stock is impacting on the ability to carry out bin collections and street cleaning.

"All of these services have suffered as a result of breakdowns, poor availability of some hire vehicles and maintenance resource levels," it said.

Councillors were told that the authority's oldest vehicle is now 18-years-old, with many more than a decade old.

The report further noted the current fleet's mooted upkeep costs for 2026-27 alone stands at £1.3m, which is nearly twice the money available.

GBC had set aside £10m in its 2026-27 budget to support a whole fleet replacement, which is expected to cost a total of £24m, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

The report added the remaining £14m will be subject to allocation by the new West Surrey Council, which will assume responsibility for all local government services in Guildford - along with five other existing Surrey districts - from April 2027.

Officers told the committee: "The condition of the existing fleet is in such a poor state.

"If we had a rolling fleet replacement programme, then maybe only 25 per cent of the fleet would need to be replaced on an annual basis.

"That's what we want to get to, but unfortunately we're not there yet," they added.

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