THE CITY Engineer’s Department of Bir-mingham City Council is responsible for the transport for Social Services, Hous-ing, Parks and Amenities, and Education within the City. Within the department’s overall responsibility is the maintenance of some 45 land Rovers which have been specified by particular departments within the council.

These vehicles include both long wheelbase and short wheelbase models in hard top and soft top versions and, in some cases, as stationwagons. Within the Trans-port division Land Rovers fitted with light cranes are also used for breakdown work.

The only accessories normally specified are winches for the Parks Department vehicles and the only conversion purch-ased is the Land Rover fitted with a hydraulic platform and used for tree maintenance within the City—a city, incidentally, which boasts more trees within its boundaries than the Wye Forest.

The Land Rovers average around 10,000 miles a year and normally remain on the fleet for up to seven years. Compared with other vehicles spares are considered to be expensive but the reor-ganisation of British Leyland now ensures that there is a good availability.

The City Engineer’s Department is never afraid to experiment, one example being the conversion of a Land Rover to a recovery vehicle carried out by first-year apprentices within the workshop. Another experiment has been the conver-sion to the use of LPG, but the department is not yet fully convinced of the value of the change within the expec-ted life of the vehicles on the fleet.

Although the Land Rovers are only used in four-wheel drive for a small percentage of their working life their ability to work on poor surfaces makes them especially useful to a department responsible for such work as grass main-tenance where a Land Rover can double as a tractor by towing gang mowers and being fitted with a spray bar. One of the less publicised problems of the weather this winter was that of keeping cemeteries open and in Birmingham this was done by Land Rovers fitted with forward-mounted snow ploughs.

There are those who would query the necessity for four-wheel drive vehicles to councils operating in urban areas like Birmingham. However, the residual values and running costs make Land Rovers no more expensive, and in some cases less expensive, than normal two-wheel drive vehicles.

OTHER SERIES III ARTICLES:

Technical Specifications

All of the following articleswere published between 1980 and 1983, a period that saw the introduction of the County models, the Hi-Cap Pick Up and the Stage 1 V8

• 2 new Pickups and a Station wagon
• A company with £200 million to spend
• Land Rover Assembly
• Service Sells
• 30 Years Experience
• Transport Costs Reduced
• City Council does own conversions
• No real Alternative
• Demand for work vehicles
• Constant Off-Highway use
• Mixed Fleet for broadcasters
• All Sorts of Landrover
• Conversions extend Applications
• Back to Buyers Guide - Past Masters