A FLEET of 16 JCBs costing more than £400,000 has been bought by York-based Collier Plant Hire.

The machines range from 1.5-tonne mini diggers to 22-tonne tracked excavators. They will be used for a variety of tasks from waste management and highways maintenance, to house-building for York-based Persimmon Homes and general plant hire duties for Northern Electric and gas infrastructure company Transco.

Richard Collier, managing director, started the company in 1979 with four second-hand JCBs.

His firm now has more than 50 machines and 25 employees.

Updated: 10:28 Tuesday, February 12, 2002