Plans for a vehicle and waste depot in New Southgate could see an additional site bought in an attempt to alleviate traffic problems.

Barnet Borough Council is looking to buy the Abbots Depot, in Oakleigh Road South, New Southgate, to store its rubbish trucks when it moves out of its current depot in Mill Hill in December 2016.

It also plans to have a bulking facility for food and rubbish, and a fuel station on the site.

Proposals were put forward to the council’s assets, regeneration and growth committee at Hendon Town Hall tonight to buy the lease for the Winters Haulage site next to the Abbots Depot, currently used by a skip company.

Although Barnet Council would have to pay a “substantial” one-off sum – which has not been made public for commercial reasons – the authority claims it would ease traffic problems in the area by cutting truck journeys by around 125 each day.

The proposal for the Winters site is for the next five years, and would cost £81,500 to rent each year from Network Rail, which owns the site.

Brunswick Park councillor Lisa Rutter, who put forward the proposal, said: “For as long I can remember, residents have been complaining about Winters and the extra traffic they cause.”

The Conservative councillor said that unless the Winters site was purchased, there would be “double the traffic and problems” in the area.

She added: “At the end of the day, we have got to weigh up the risks. What would happen if somebody else purchased it?”

Coppetts councillor Pauline Coakley Webb questioned the value of the money involved, and the fact the Winters proposal was not involved in a recent public exhibition.

The Labour councillor said: “This is a very short-term lease. We are paying a hell of a big premium for a parcel of land we are not intending to do much with."

The proposal was referred to full council by the Labour committee members because of the "enormity" of the sums of public money involved, and will be discussed at the next meeting in April.