The Cheshire East branch of the Women's Equality Party this week called for Congleton to retain a Household Waste and Recycling Centre, after Cheshire East Council threatened to remove the facility from the town.

Plans to move the centre to a new Congleton site once the lease on the current site runs out have been shelved by Cheshire East to make cost savings in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The authority has launched a public consultation on plans to close some of the borough's eight recycling centres, but none of the optional future scenarios include keeping a centre in Congleton.

WEP Cheshire East Branch Co-Leader and Congleton Town Councillor Kay Wesley visited the Congleton HWRC to learn more.

The site is busy all day long on Saturday and Sunday with about 300 cars a day at the weekend and about half that number on weekdays. There are also about 10 people a week who walk there.

If Congleton Waste & Recycling Centre closes, local residents will be likely to use Macclesfield Centre instead, which is a half-hour round trip at seven miles away. The Macclesfield site itself is always busy, and like Congleton, has long queues at the weekend.

Cllr Wesley commented: "Calculating the carbon footprint of Congleton residents using Macclesfield tip for a year means an estimated additional 480 tons of CO2 emitted into the Cheshire East atmosphere - the equivalent of adding 80 more households or boiling your kettle 32 million times.

"It makes a mockery of the Climate Change Emergency that has been declared by Cheshire East Council.

"And this is with the current population of Congleton, which we know is set to increase dramatically in the next few years with all the building going on in and around our town.

"The inconvenience of taking time to travel to Macclesfield and wait in line to recycle your waste is likely to prove a disincentive for our residents and I fully expect we will see recycling rates going down, which is exactly the opposite of what Cheshire East Council states it is aiming for in its Environment Strategy 2020-24.

"Furthermore, the people who use the Congleton site on foot, some 500 visits a year, would presumably have no access to a recycling centre at all. This is in direct breach of CEC's Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Strategy.

"I will work with my fellow Congleton Town councillors from all parties to ensure we respond to the consultation in the most robust manner possible.

"I understand that the coronavirus pandemic has hit short-term budgets, but the national government has promised a 'green recovery'.

"I hope we can persuade Cheshire East Council that this means we