North Somerset Council has approved funding to advance a £56 million waste depot and household waste recycling centre, moving the project into detailed design and planning preparation.

Councillors backed the next stage of the scheme on 18 September, which covers design work, planning requirements and business case refinement before any decision on the full construction programme. The indicative budget of around £56 million includes what the council calls a 'substantial contingency'.

The project targets two gaps in the authority's waste infrastructure. First, it would consolidate waste operations across the entire region. Second, it would deliver a replacement household waste recycling centre for Weston-super-Mare and the surrounding area.

Why does the council say it needs the investment?

The authority states its current waste infrastructure faces 'significant challenges', with an existing depot too small to cope with household growth.

Councillor Annemieke Waite, Cabinet Member for Climate, Waste and Sustainability, said the investment protects a 'vital public service for the future'.

"Waste and recycling services are among the most important services we provide for residents every day, and we need infrastructure that is fit for the future," Waite said.

"Our existing arrangements are not sustainable in the long term. We need a modern facility that enables us to continue delivering reliable services, improve operational efficiency and meet future environmental and legislative requirements," she added.

The reference to legislative requirements points to the tightening compliance agenda facing English waste authorities, including simplification of recycling collections and expanded producer responsibility obligations. Councils across England are reassessing depot capacity and transfer infrastructure as those deadlines approach.

How firm is the £56 million figure?

The number remains an indicative budget rather than a final cost. The next phase will refine business cases before any construction commitment, and councillors themselves flagged the uncertainty.

Councillor Steve Bridger acknowledged the 'scale of investment required is significant'. He said the council has benchmarked the project against similar schemes delivered by other councils and built contingency into the budget.

"The reality is that construction costs for major infrastructure projects have increased considerably in recent years, and we want residents to be confident that our plans are based on robust evidence and realistic assessments of what these facilities now cost to deliver," Bridger said.

Construction cost inflation has hit local authority waste infrastructure hard, with depot and transfer station projects across the UK reporting budgets well above pre-2020 benchmarks. North Somerset's contingency approach reflects that pressure.

What happens next?

The approved phase covers three workstreams:

• developing detailed designs for the depot and recycling centre
• progressing planning requirements
• refining business cases before a future decision on the full construction programme

No construction timeline has been set. The council will return to a future decision point on the full build programme once design, planning and business case work is complete.

For now, the £56 million remains an announced project, not committed capital expenditure. The milestone that decides what happens next is the planning application and the subsequent full business case approval, which will confirm whether the scheme proceeds to construction and at what final cost.

Operators, contractors and waste sector observers should track North Somerset's planning submissions in the coming months as the first hard test of whether the £56 million figure holds.