There is just under a month to go before a final decision is expected on the future of Congleton's Household Waste and Recycling Centre.

Yet questions remain unanswered – some of them going back three years - over the controversial figure of £4m Cheshire East Council say will be the cost of replacing the tip after the lease runs out on the Barn Road site in September.

Members of Congleton Town Council will demand answers at this morning's (Monday) virtual meeting of Cheshire East's Environment and Regeneration Overview and Scrutiny Committee.

Supporting them will be the Mayor of Congleton, Sally Ann Holland, a Conservative Cheshire East councillor.

Cllr Holland requested a full breakdown of the £4m estimate at a CEC Cabinet meeting on March 9.

Acting on information supplied by a concerned resident of Congleton, she provided the meeting with figures for four other recycling centres presented to councils in other parts of the UK, all of them leading to the go-ahead being agreed.

They were at Carrickfergus in Northern Ireland (£1m), Norwich South (£1.9m), Cotgrave in Nottinghamshire (£2.5m) and Norwich North (£2.75m).

Cllr Holland said before today's CEC committee meeting: "I am still to receive a breakdown of the £4m figure."

The administration at Cheshire East is a Labour and Independent coalition.

A Liberal Democrat member of the town council, Paul Duffy, has launched a petition calling for a recycling site to be provided in Congleton.

Cllr Duffy said: "Surely, Cheshire East Council cannot seriously envisage Congleton, their area's fourth biggest town of almost 27,000 people, not being provided with a household recycling site?

"In the public consultation, the people of Congleton have made their views clearly known that our town must be provided with a recycling site and I am very pleased that almost 3,200 have signed my petition."

Cllr Duffy has worked closely on the issue with his fellow Liberal Democrat town councillor, Robert Douglas, who says: "All political groups within Congleton are fully united in ensuring that there is a recycling centre in Congleton."

Cllr Douglas added: "Over three months ago, a resident wrote to the local newspaper asking whether we are seriously meant to believe this figure of £4m for a new recycling site.

"Has Cheshire East Council just grabbed this figure out of thin air to scare people from objecting to its closure?

"Despite that letter being written over three months ago, we are still not aware of anyone who has received a detailed costing or explanation from Cheshire East Council to justify the figure.

"The town mayor has subsequently presented them with evidence from another resident that other councils are advising they are able to provide recycling sites at a substantially lower cost than £4m."

Cllr Douglas added: "How are other councils able to provide recycling sites at a much lower cost and when are Cheshire East going to answer that question initially raised over three months ago and explain the justification for the figure?"

Cllr Duffy will be speaking at today's CEC committee meeting as will Andy Lindsay, the chair of Brereton Parish Council.

He has relevant experience given his local recycling site at Arclid closed in 2017.

In the spring of 2018, Cheshire East Council's then portfolio holder for finance, Paul Bates, told the annual meeting of Congleton Town Council he had authorised the spending of £50,000 on consultants to look for an alternative site for Congleton.

This was six months after the closure of the Arclid site and he revealed this after being asked what effect the closure would have on Congleton

Cllr Douglas was at that meeting, before his time as a councillor, and he recalls: "I was stunned by this response – to a question I asked – and wrongly assumed that the search for an alternative site was because the existing site was not Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) compliant.

"It was only much later that I learned this issue was not about DDA compliance but one about ownership.

"Given Cheshire East Council started the search for a new site three years ago, they have had plenty of time to locate and prepare a new site in readiness for when the existing lease expires."

The Liberal Democrat councillor added: "This county authority has refused to provide answers to my Freedom of Information requests or my questions at Cheshire East cabinet/full council meetings.

"In those meetings I have requested bland details of the approximate acreage and approximate distance from our town centre of the alternative recycling sites that they are/have been seriously considering.

"I have been obliged to appeal to the Information Commissioner and their office has in the last few days advised that my appeal is worthy of their consideration, but it will be some months before I hear the outcome of their deliberations."

Now, three years after that revelation by Paul Bates to Congleton Town Council, time is running out.

Cheshire East Council's decision on the recycling site is expected to be made at their next Cabinet meeting on Tuesday April 13.

You can sign councillor Duffy's "save the tip" petition here.