£2.4million could be wasted on Middlewich site

Cheshire East Council bought the land on Cledford Lane, formerly owned by Ideal Standard with plans to turn it into a borough-wide waste transfer site.

Criticism has since been laid heavily on the council with some suggesting that they could have wasted the huge figure.

Although the council has still yet to submit a planning application for the development, an application for a ‘general tidy-up’ of the land was submitted after acquiring it in December last year.

The application was approved, but issues were highlighted about rare wildlife such as Great Crested Newts, barn owls and bats, which are likely to be brought up again when the application for the waste site development is submitted.

Cllr Brian Silvester has joined the criticism of the decision to buy the land before applying for planning permission, and accused the council of not learning from a similar situation which cost the council more than £1million in 2011.

Cllr Silvester said: “The proposed development of the Lyme Green Waste Transfer Facility in 2011 was progressed without planning permission and the whole sorry saga resulted in a loss of more than £1million to the council taxpayers.

“I was therefore astonished to learn that the council has acquired the former Ideal Standard site on Cledford Lane in Middlewich for £2.4m to convert it into a borough-wide Waste Facility.

“After the Lyme Green disaster it is beyond belief that CEC has purchased another alternative site, even before they have submitted a planning application. Surely the sensible way forward would have been to make an offer on the site subject to planning permission.

“There is no guarantee that the site will gain planning permission and if it doesn’t then there will be further enormous losses to the council taxpayers and the never ending search for a suitable waste facility for the borough would have been further delayed.”