A pair of new library vans will hit the roads of Angus in 2019 – reaching parts of the county the current vehicles can’t.
Communities committee councillors have signed off spending on the new vans, which will come in at a total cost of almost £270,000.
The authority has £113,000 set aside in its vehicle replacement fund for the new vehicles and Angus Alive, the council’s arms-length culture and leisure trust, secured a six-figure slice of LEADER funding to help buy and kit out the hi-tech machines.
Montrose SNP councillor Bill Duff said: “I think this is a good news story.
“Angus Alive has sought external funding and that will help finance these vans, which I understand will be available early in 2019.
“These will be smaller vehicles which can access places that the bigger vans can’t reach at the moment. The IT facilities on board will also be better.”
Monfieth and Sidlaws SNP councillor Sheila Hands said: “I hope the new vans will have an interview room within them.
“One of the successes of the vehicles we have at the moment is that the interview room has allowed other services to tag on to the rural library provision in the more remote communities and reach people there.”
The library vans are part of a planned 2018/19 vehicle spend of more than £1.6 million, the bulk of it relating to the council’s waste services department.
It includes two £120,000 mechanical road sweepers, four compact road sweepers at more than £65,000 each, a £276,000 garden waste shredder and three £60,000 7.5 tonne refuse collection vehicles.
Service manager Graeme Dailly’s report said: “Fleet management arrangements within the council are managed as part of a service level agreement with Tayside Contracts.
“The council is responsible for the strategic elements of fleet management including control over the vehicle replacement programme. Tayside Contracts are responsible for the procurement of vehicles on behalf of the council and the maintenance of the vehicles that are purchased.
“The supply market has been analysed and it is considered that the market for the supply of the required vehicles and equipment is reasonably competitive through Scotland Excel and Tayside Procurement Consortium framework agreements.
“The impact on the locally-based supply chain of procuring this requirement has also been considered and is considered to be minimal. Some of the potential suppliers/dealers are based in Angus and others are national companies,” added the official.
