Conwy: Nearly quarter of a million pounds spent by council on 'unusable' HGV depot

• A depot costing hundreds of thousands pounds a year in taxpayers money is unusable for its original purpose, as Rob Shelley reports...

A HGV lorry depot that "can't house trucks" is costing Conwy taxpayers nearly a quarter of a million pounds per year.

The council had intended to use the depot to store its fleet of vehicles but the flooring is not strong enough to hold heavy goods vehicles.

It is now locked into a contract which sees them spend £240,000 a year in rent for the building at Mochdre Commerce Park.

The 35-year contract, which started in 2016, has so far cost the taxpayer around £2m.

The earliest the council can break the lease is 2031, when by then they would have spent around £3.6m in total.

The building has been used for storage of pandemic-related equipment, general storage and was readied as an emergency temporary morgue during the height of Covid.

Aberconwy MS Janet Finch-Saunders said, “It is a situation that cannot continue, certainly with the council crying poverty and citing it is on the edge of bankruptcy at times.

“We can’t have a situation where they are pouring good money after bad on a building that is not fit for purpose. It doesn’t fulfil any requirement for the local authority. It was a mess from day one, and I would have thought the leader and cabinet would be looking to come out of that contract but not at the cost to taxpayers.”

A spokesperson for the council said it "cannot comment on a matter that is the subject of ongoing litigation."

ITV Cymru Wales has attempted to contact the landlords but has received no reply.

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