Beard to build Bath recycling centre: phasing, site reuse and design notes for engineers
Reviewed by Tom Sullivan
First reported on The Construction Index
30 Second Briefing
Bath & North East Somerset Council has appointed contractor EW Beard to deliver a new recycling centre on Locksbrook Road by 2026, enabling closure of the existing Midland Road facility and redevelopment of that site. The Midland Road plot will be taken forward by council-owned Aequus Construction Limited with more than 170 one‑, two‑ and three‑bed homes for social rent, shared ownership and market sale under the Bath Western Riverside scheme. Works at Locksbrook will be sequenced in two phases, starting with refurbishment of a former transport depot before new-build construction next spring.
Technical Brief
- Construction sequencing hinges on refurbishing an existing transport depot before any new-build recycling infrastructure starts.
- Midland Road demolition is scheduled to begin “next month”, requiring temporary waste-handling continuity and traffic management.
- Housing mix at Midland Road spans 1–3 bed units, driving varied foundation loadings and parking/servicing layouts.
- Tenure split across social rent, shared ownership and market sale will influence phasing, access strategy and utilities adoption.
Our Take
Within the 92 Infrastructure stories in our database, only a small subset combine waste infrastructure with explicit housing delivery metrics, so the 170-home plan at Midland Road positions Bath & North East Somerset Council as an example of councils using recycling centre relocation to unlock brownfield for residential use.
The 2026 completion horizon means any delay to EW Beard’s delivery at Locksbrook Road would directly push back the Bath Western Riverside housing scheme’s build-out, a sequencing risk local authorities and contractors are increasingly having to manage on constrained urban sites in the UK.
Because the Midland Road site already has permission for a mix of one-, two- and three-bed homes, the recycling centre move effectively pre-derisks the planning side for that parcel, shifting the main constraints to construction logistics and funding rather than land-use consent.
Prepared by collating external sources, AI-assisted tools, and Geomechanics.io’s proprietary mining database, then reviewed for technical accuracy & edited by our geotechnical team.
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