Letter: How Did GBC Get Into this Position?

Published on: 26 Aug, 2026
Updated on: 26 Aug, 2026

Some of the dust trucks in the 41 vehicle fleet at the council’s Woking Road depot. (Taken in 2020)

From Neil O’Brien

In response to: Guildford Council’s Ageing Vehicle Fleet is Costly and Inefficient

The £1.3 million forecast maintenance bill for Guildford Council’s ageing vehicle fleet raises a more important question than simply whether repairing or replacing the fleet is cheaper.

How did GBC get into this position in the first place?

Vehicles are depreciating assets with reasonably predictable operating lives. If they are kept beyond the point at which replacement would normally be expected, maintenance costs and downtime will inevitably rise.

That does not automatically mean replacing the fleet earlier would have been cheaper. We need the whole-life cost data to establish that.

But it does raise questions about long-term capital planning.

If the council knew a large proportion of the fleet would need replacing, was sufficient money being set aside for that investment? Or was replacement repeatedly deferred because the capital expenditure would have been significant, leaving a much larger problem for a future year?

Good financial management is not simply keeping capital expenditure low. It is recognising when assets will need replacing, funding that requirement over time and making replacement decisions based on whole-life cost.

As Guildford moves into West Surrey, this is exactly the sort of inherited asset issue that should be examined properly rather than simply rolled into the new authority.

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