New premises for specialist traffic management vehicle hire firm

Traffic management hire specialist Blakedale has completed its move to a new state-of-the-art workshop and office space.

Chorley-based Blakedale completed its move last month and the new 18,000 sq ft Buckshaw Village facility will help to facilitate the continued expansion of both the hire fleet and the service and repair division of the rapidly-expanding business.

Established in 2000 the family-owned company currently has approximately 350 vehicles in its fleet, with a further 40 vehicles to be added by the end of the year.

“The hire desk has been busier than ever during the lockdown as road works continued as usual,” said director Jonathan Smith.

“We expect this to continue into 2021 as government infrastructure spending is set to increase – Highways England has just announced a £27bn spending programme which should see our expansion continue.”

He added: “During lockdown the majority of our staff worked from home which gave us the opportunity to finish the office refurb and we now have a fantastic new home for all our workfore.”

In addition to the hire operations, Blakedale now also has a repair and maintenance offering for clients who operate in the traffic management space, which is experiencing considerable growth.

Mr Smith said: “We are currently recruiting further technicians which will give us nationwide 24-hour coverage – we are also adding to our office function to cope with the increased fleet size and demand for our services.”