East Riding of Yorkshire Council have decided to rebuild a former freight transport shed on the industrial estate off Goole’s Rawcliffe Road.
This will change the way in which the council deals with waste in the next 10-15 years.
PBS Construction is the main contractor, construction work started in August 2013.
The Managing Director Pete Smurthwaite explained how the work began. They created a new pond which the existing roadside dyke feeds into and drains out of. This has been specially designed to improve the flood resilience of the whole of Rawcliffe Road Industrial Estate. Mr Smurthwaite said, “PBS had to start from scratch.”
The waste station will be a permanent site, built to last, thanks to PBS Construction. The purpose of the waste station is to provide a place to which the council’s dustcart’s and sweeper vehicles can bring the Goole area’s domestic waste.
The sites operator will have a 72 hour turnaround (maximum) to sort the waste into what can and can’t be composted/recycled. The waste will be sorted in to piles and loaded on to trucks to get it off the site. Traffic management will be put in place.
The site was visited by Cllr Symon Fraser, ERYC’s cabinet portfolio holder for environment, housing and planning. He was keen to make it very clear that there will be no processing of waste on the site, just sorting.
The main challenge that PBS Construction has faced so far is the amount of rain that has fallen. This has been a good test for the flood resilience capacity of the dyke and the new pond. “Usually in winter our biggest problem would be constant frosts, but not this year,” said Mr Smurthwaite, of PBS.
The project is creating new jobs for young people. Mr Smurthwaite said, “When work started last August we advertised through Goole jobcentre for young people interested in coming in to work on the site with a view to a possible career in construction.”
PBS gave Tom two weeks to impress them, he did and PBS gave him another two weeks. It has now gotten to the point where PBS are willing to offer him a full time job. Tom said, “I had been looking for work for about a year when the jobcentre suggested this.”
In the last four months PBS has increased it’s workforce from 35 to 45 thanks to this work experience scheme.
