Congleton Town Council will work with neighbouring parish councils to ensure that five new roundabouts, which are all gateways into the town, are sustainable and not just made up of grass.

The new Congleton Link Road will have five roundabouts which fall under neighbouring parish councils' boundaries but not under the remit of Congleton Town Council.

There have been some initial discussions with Cheshire East Council to establish how the new roundabouts will be presented and maintained.

The town council have been advised by Cheshire East that the plans is to have the roundabouts just laid to grass and mown twice a year, similar to the grass verges that residents see as they enter many of the towns across the borough.

Speaking at Thursday's virtual Congleton Town Council meeting of the Town Hall, Assets and Services Committee, Ruth Burgess, streetscape developer manager, stated that herself and Cllr David Brown will be in contact with the neighbouring parishes to see if they would be interested in working alongside Congleton Town Council in the designing of the five roundabouts.

Mrs Burgess said: "We have been in contact with the infrastructure manager of the link road, who is allowing us to have a bit of free reign, but he has set certain standards that we need to meet, but this is something we are looking forward to doing otherwise they are just going to be plain grass mown once a year."

Cllr Brown said: "I think it is essential that we are involved in this, well done to the chief officer and the streetscape manager for initiating these conversations. At times in the summer the Wilmslow/Alderley Edge bypass looks absolutely disgraceful."

Cllr Russell Chadwick said: "Those roundabouts are going to be the gateway into Congleton, it's a Congleton bypass and as a consequence we have got to have input into the design.

"We are renowned throughout Cheshire for our roundabouts and I think we have got to keep those standards. Those roundabouts should be designed and worked by us."

David McGifford, chief officer for Congleton Town Council, responded: "We have got to respect that they are also gateways to neighbouring parishes as well, that's why we want to work in partnership with the joining parishes to come up with something that is sustainable because it is a high speed road and attractive."

Cllr Chadwick added: "As Cheshire East just want them to be grass, I think we have got to be the lead on it. If they [roundabouts] are left as grass it would not be a good signpost into Congleton."

Ruth Burgess confirmed that the current plan is for the roundabouts to be sustainably designed similar to the large Tesco's roundabout, which are sustainable, with small rockeries or wildflower areas.

Mrs Burgess added: "We cannot have any large structures on there because of the size of the roundabouts, highways wouldn't allow it due to the sight lines of the junctions."

Cllr Margaret Gartside said: "The In Bloom group have been talking about these roundabouts with streetscape and we are very keen to get involved together with the parishes to try and make them significant because they are an important entry point into the town."

Cllr Robert Douglas queried whether Grahams construction and Cheshire East were going to be financing the initial cost to get the roundabouts into the correct sustainability that the town and parish councils were looking for.

Mr McGifford said: "What Cheshire East would do is to grass the roundabouts and that will be it. That's the standard costing and then cut the grass once and maybe twice a year."

Cllr Douglas responded: "Well that's not a very good solution."

Cheshire East refer to the roundabouts based on their geographical location, which are as follows:

Moving from south to north:

• Wall Hill Roundabout
• Loach brook Roundabout
• Radnor Roundabout
• Quarry Roundabout
• Eaton Bank Roundabout