TWO hundred and fifty solar panels are providing power for Southampton’s new eco-friendly council depot and rubbish recycling park.

The £13.6m scheme will see the relocation of council waste and transport operations from Town Depot by the Itchen Bridge to a four-acre site at Dock Gate 20 in Millbrook. The site will also be home to emergency planners and port health officials.

The environmentally designed City Depot will comprise a three-storey office block, a fleet workshop for the 37 rubbish trucks and 38 council vehicles that will be based there overnight, parking, storage facilities, and a salt barn.

The new tip will be open all year round to the public for the dumping or recycling of household waste.

The new household waste recycling centre will be 50 per cent larger than the one in Endle Street, with additional space for recycling.

A bed of 250 solar panel cells have been laid on the roof of the offices, which will provide up to 15 per cent of the electricity for the site.

A 50,000-litre tank will collect rainwater from the roofs for washing vehicles and filling gulley emptying machines and street sweepers. Water is also recycled from the vehicle wash.

Builders Mansell are just over halfway into the 46 week-project, which has created four new apprenticeships.

The new site, on part of the former Calor Gas and Dimplex Site in First Avenue, will be the base for some 380 staff.

Port owners ABP objected to the plans for the site, raising concerns it would bring traffic chaos and clog up access to the docks and estate.

A one-way route through the site has been drawn up with an entrance from First Avenue and the exit on to Manor House Avenue.

The site will open in January.