The borough's portfolio holder for highways and waste has announced she is "more than happy to listen" to suggestions on ways Cheshire East can cut their services by 0.03% in enable to fund a replacement recycling site in Congleton.

The council's Environment and Regeneration Overview and Scrutiny Committee recently voted to ask the borough's officers to make one final attempt to purchase the land the tip is located on (off Barn Road).

The site is due to close in September 2021, as the lease on the land is up, and planning documents show Bluemantle, the owner has earmarked it to become a Costa coffee drive-through outlet.

Speaking at last Wednesday's Cheshire East Council meeting, Congleton town councillor Paul Duffy, said: "This will leave Congleton with a population currently of 27,000 and rising, together with 13,000+ houses without any official disposable site or any opportunity to recycle locally.

"I am not hear to talk about what happened to the £4m that was previously entered in the last two budget cycles, but I would like to ask about the responses supplied by the public as part of the consultation exercise.

"As well as the impressive figure of 10,000 responses for the consultation, an online petition has over 2,000 signatures and was submitted as part of the consultation process.

"Yet, at the presentation to the Environment and Regeneration Overview and Scrutiny Committee, the petition and as noted by councillors at that meeting, an amount of other information such as an environmental review were apparently not available for the scrutiny committee."

The Liberal Democrat councillor asked if the submitted petition had been "taken into consideration".

Cllr Duffy added: "The proposal for residents of Congleton to travel to Macclesfield to recycle waste adds 3.9 tonnes of extra carbon dioxide per week into the atmosphere.

"Previous replies to extra CO2 emissions have highlighted that a new facility would create extra CO2 emissions, yet in Cheshire East other major building opportunities continue seemingly irrespective of their environmental impact.

"How does closing a recycling centre, adding 3.9 tonnes of carbon dioxide fit in with the climate emergency declared by Cheshire East in 2019."

Cheshire East does not own the lease at the existing site in Congleton, but in February 2020, the authority approved a £4million budget for a new purpose-built recycling site for Congleton.

Cllr Laura Crane, portfolio holder for highways and waste, stressed the £4m was in the borough's capital addendum, which is a list of projects Cheshire East could consider if there was a "business case" and if the money to pay back the loan could be found.

Cllr Crane said: "I would ask anyone who would like to bring that forward to suggest services that we [Cheshire East] could cut to make up for that.

"Regardless of our aims, we are restricted by our budget and while we may not have made this decision right now if the lease was not coming up in September, actually I said decision didn't I there, we have not made a decision and I think it is very, very, very important to say that a decision has not been reached and if we can find those savings and justify the capital expenditure then that is something we can do."

Given the feedback received at the Environment and Regeneration Overview and Scrutiny Committee, Cllr Crane revealed that any recommendations made to cabinet had been delayed, giving the scrutiny committee "another chance" to review further details.

Cllr Crane reiterated: "A decision has not been made, but we are in a difficult position and I would ask everybody to consider that as we move forward."

Fellow Congleton town councillor Robert Douglas labelled it "unthinkable" for a town "the size of Congleton" not to have access to its own recycling site.

The Liberal Democrat councillor has previously voiced that Cheshire East's recent public consultation was "so misleading" and "missed vital information" that it should be "discarded".

Cllr Douglas has highlighted his desire for a "fresh" consultation when "normality had resumed".

Speaking at last Wednesday's meeting, Cllr Douglas said: "The recent presentation by Cheshire East following the consultation does not provide us with any information about responses regarding Congleton."

The Liberal Democrat councillor wanted specific figures on how many responses stated they wanted a site retained in Congleton and whether any other individual recycling site across the borough received more comments than Congleton.

Cllr Douglas added: "Cheshire East has refused to answer my Freedom of Information request or my questions at cabinet for bland details about the alternative new sites they were considering for Congleton.

"Now that Cheshire East has announced its proposal in this recent presentation, there can be no reason for Cheshire East to not answer this question today.

"So, please since May 2019, how many alternative sites did Cheshire East seriously consider to replace the existing site and what is the approximate acreage and distance from the centre of Congleton.

"Cheshire East's total expenditure next year will be almost £750m and we are advised it will cost £250,000 to fund a new recycling centre for Congleton."

Cllr Douglas continued: "By not providing a new recycling site our environment will suffer from increased fly-tipping, reduced recycling, increased CO2 by travelling further to alternative sites and additional engine idling in longer queues.

"That £250,000 represents just 0.03% of Cheshire East's total budget, if Cheshire East were truly serious about protecting our environment and achieving its goal of being carbon neutral by 2025 that money would be found.

"The potential new owner of the existing site is struggling in these difficult times, so please find the money for a new site and extend the existing lease until the new site is ready."

Cllr Crane responded: "That does require us to remove that 0.03% from another service, so if people can suggest the services, they would like to see cut to enable a site to be built in Congleton then I am more than happy to listen."

Cllr Tony Dean, who is Cheshire East's shadow portfolio holder for the environment, highlighted the plan to close Congleton's site remained in place despite 50% of the consultation's respondents 'strongly supporting' the option to close none of the borough's sites.

A further 24% of the responses 'supported' not closing any of the recycling sites.

Cllr Dean said: "The consultation is effectively being ignored. At almost the same moment, this administration has published its new corporate plan which focuses strongly and quite rightly on environmental improvements 'a greener council'.

"I therefore find it astounding that this administration is going directly against its own new corporate plan by allowing Congleton to lose its household waste recycling centre.

"This loss would create more carbon dioxide and pollution emissions from longer journeys to Macclesfield or Alsager but would also create more fly-tipping.

"The environment and scrutiny committee has already discussed this issue and recommended to cabinet that the council urgently tries to purchase the current Congleton site from the landowner."

Cllr Dean continued: "I strongly support that this option is now taken up by cabinet and if it fails another site is found for Congleton.

"In anticipation of Cllr Laura Crane asking me where the money is going to come from, I'm quite happy to have access to the head of finance and all the detail figures to find that money for her as long as she commits to accept my recommendations.

"I don't think she will do that; in which case it would be better for her to revamp her own budget."

The current lease at the Congleton site expires in September 2021, however, there is a break clause included in the contract, which means the owner of the site could close the tip before then if they gave Cheshire East "sufficient notice".

As a direct result, this would mean Cheshire East would have to commission and fund the creation of a new facility in Congleton – a capital cost of around £4m leading to around £250,000 per year in additional costs for the council.

Whilst the council's Medium Term Financial Strategy – their budget plans for the next four years - includes £4m for Congleton HWRC, it is within the addendum to their capital programme.

This means that it could only go ahead once a detailed business case has been approved to make sure the proposal is affordable.

As a result, Cheshire East has proposed that they do not replace Congleton's HWRC with a new facility once the lease of the current site comes to an end.

The nearest alternative sites for residents served by Congleton HWRC are Alsager (around eight miles away) and Macclesfield (around six miles away).

Town councillors illustrated the impact the loss of Congleton's recycling centre would have on the neighbouring town's tips over the weekend.