Cheshire East has been using taxpayers money to maintain more than 500 green space plots of land - including in Congleton - which may be privately owned.

Director of environment and neighbourhood services Paul Bayley said the authority has been maintaining 547 parcels of land not registered as being owned by the council.

The matter came to light after some of these green spaces were put up for sale on the open market.

Mr Bayley told a meeting of the council's environment and communities committee: "In principle, it is not appropriate for the council to use public funds to maintain land it does not own nor where there is an agreement for it to maintain.

"This issue first came to light in relation to parcels of open space on a residential estate in Sandbach. There are around 50 parcels of amenity green space dotted throughout this estate open to the public that, at some point in time, were included on the predecessor council's (Congleton borough) schedule for grounds maintenance and has since continued to be maintained by the predecessor council and now Cheshire East Council."

He said Cheshire East became aware last year that some of the green spaces were up for sale and decided to withdraw maintenance from six parcels of land on the estate.

"However, it was subsequently established the council did not own any of the green spaces on this estate – the lands had been retained by the developer rather than transferred to council and later sold on to a third party," said the officer.

"This situation led to a broader exercise to review land registered in the council's ownership against land it maintains. The review has identified 547 parcels of land that it maintains and is not registered as owned by the council."

He added: "That doesn't mean however that all 547 are not owned by the council. Some may simply not have been registered and in some cases there may be an agreement for the council to maintain them, an example of that could be a closed cemetery."

Cllr Janet Clowes (Wybunbury, Con) asked what the council was doing to ensure this doesn't happen again.

Mr Bayley said the matter of future green space maintenance is something being consulted on in a supplementary planning document for developer contributions.

Earlier in the meeting, the committee had heard from Sandbach town councillor Nicola Cooke that the size of the problem had been unearthed by residents.

Cllr Cook told the committee: "Following the withdrawal of maintenance on these [six] lands by Cheshire East council with no explanation, the residents have worked tirelessly to get answers to why this maintenance has stopped. It was the same residents who identified that there were other plots in Sandbach owned by private individuals and investors, but yet were still being maintained by Cheshire East Council.

"I would like to thank all of these residents for their hard work because I suspect, without their tenacity, this committee may well not be considering this issue today."

The committee voted unanimously that a review should be carried out of those plots of land not in council ownership that it has historically maintained to identify options for future management and maintenance.

It also voted to continue the maintenance of those plots it has historically maintained until the review is completed. This includes the plots in Sandbach, where they remain open to the public.

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