PICTURES AND VIDEO: Residents invited to make use of community cabin as Ansa site takes shape

Shells of each of the Cledford Lane site’s major buildings have now been erected, with cladding underway and internal work due to begin before the end of the year.

While construction is underway, and after the station becomes operational, a community cabin will be open for residents to pose any questions to members of staff.

Ralph Kemp, Cheshire East Council waste strategy manager, said: “The community cabin gives a space for people to come and talk. It’s in a safe area but has views onto the site.

“We want to treat waste more as a resource and stop it being produced at all if we can. The main focus for our recycling is to make it as easy as possible for people.

“That does mean that we need a transfer station in order to change waste collected in our recycling collection to larger articulated lorries to take it to a recycling processing plant outside the borough, in north Wales.”

The original Ideal Standard offices are being refurbished and restored, and will provide a base for Ansa staff. The garage workshop, which backs onto Booth Lane, has also retained original features with some new cladding.

The two transfer station buildings, which will be screened from the main road by the workshop, feature carbon filters that create a negative pressure within the building.

When the fast-closing doors open, outside air will be sucked in and filtered before being released. No air escapes through the open doors.

More than 300 people will be based at the site, with many moving over from current Ansa sites although staff turnover will see job opportunities open up for Middlewich residents.

Mr Kemp also explained that the predicted 1066 vehicle movements per day is a worst-case scenario, with the majority of the journeys being made by car.

He said: “The problem with the vehicle numbers is that there is a planning number, which assumes the worst case. It is the absolute extreme. The number quoted includes the same vehicles going back and forth.

“Not everybody will bring their cars here, but I have to assume that all those cars will be parked here. Only a proportion of those would be realised upon opening.

“We have done some alterations to the junction here to make it safer when it is used, as it currently is, by industrial lorries.

“I don’t want to give a definitive figure of what will appear on day one, but it will be nothing like the worst case.”

Of the maximum 1066 daily movements, 722 would be cars and taxis meaning 361 journeys in and 361 out of the site.

Don Stockton, Cheshire East Council cabinet member for regeneration, said: “Both before and during construction, Cheshire East Council has made major inroads into cleaning up and making safe what was previously a contaminated site and a blight on neighbouring residents.

“But now, the new waste transfer station will be an excellent resource assisting in the potential complete elimination of landfill across the borough.”

Mr Kemp added: “This is a local authority and they want to be responsible. They are building this to the highest environmental standard to ensure that there is minimal impact from what we are doing.

“In the bigger picture, what we are trying to do is treat waste more sustainably through creating energy and increasing recycling, as well as providing an employment base.”