A last-ditch bid to save Congleton's household waste recycling centre has been suggested by Cheshire East councillors.

The council's Environment and Regeneration Overview and Scrutiny Committee voted 8-3 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.

Over three years ago, Congleton town councillor Robert Douglas led the campaign against the closure of the Arclid site.

Speaking at Friday's meeting, Cllr Douglas said: "To my dismay, I find myself campaigning once again to save another [Congleton]."

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

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

The daily number of users quoted in the consultation from May/June 2020, which was during the first national lockdown, was taken at a time when residents "stayed at home to protect loved ones".

Cheshire East also restricted the days residents could visit the sites through vehicle registration (odd/even).

Cllr Douglas added: "The latest information available prior to the pandemic is five-years-old from early 2016 when Arclid was still open.

"Despite fewer people living in Congleton then, the total number of daily visits to the Congleton site in 2016 was over 30% higher than the figure quoted in these misleading proposals, despite Arclid still being open.

"With users forced to switch from Arclid and an ever-increasing population, the true daily figure for Congleton is substantially higher.

"This consultation failed to provide any detailed analysis of the damage to our environment. There will be increased CO2 emissions with users obliged to travel longer distances."

Cllr Douglas' Liberal Democrat colleague and fellow Congleton town councillor Paul Duffy has computed that even using the consultation's "flawed" figures, Congleton's closure would increase CO2 emissions by about 200 tonnes per year, every year.

Cllr Douglas added: "With visitor numbers almost double outside lockdown, Congleton's closure would increase CO2 emissions by about 400 tonnes per year, every year.

"The consultation also failed to consider other adverse environmental damage — increased engine idling in longer queues, increased fly tipping, reduced recycling, giving residents will put recycled items into general domestic waste because they cannot afford the additional time to travel the longer distances.

"Increased fly tipping is disastrous for our natural environment and also has economic costs clearing it up, which is another issue not considered in this consultation.

"The proposals to close recycling sites discriminate against the elderly and the less mobile, again this has not been considered."

Congleton is Cheshire East's fourth biggest town and Cllr Douglas strongly voiced that it was "unthinkable" for the town to not have a recycling site.

Cllr Douglas continued: "The closure of any recycling site adds to the loss of recycled waste, from fly tipping and increased general household waste.

"Cheshire East report then when Arclid was closed, 4% of its tonnage was lost, Arclid is five miles from Congleton.

"Alternatives to the Congleton site are much further than that, so there will probably be significantly higher losses.

"Even if the loss were 4%, Congleton's closure would result in a loss of 111 tonnes per year, every year. The closure of the Congleton site could double the throughput tonnage at Macclesfield, but the report fails to consider whether Macclesfield could actually cope with this increased tonnage.

"The implications of an ever-growing population also seem to have been ignored in these proposals."

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 Douglas added: "It [a new replacement site] would offer significantly improved recycling capabilities for the benefit of our environment for many generations to come."

A petition lodged by Cllr Duffy for the retention of a site at Congleton has been signed by over 2,000 residents.

Cllr Douglas said: "Cheshire East has refused to answer my Freedom of Information request or my questions at cabinet for bland information about the alternative new sites they were considering for Congleton. Did they ever exist?

"This week's presentation does not provide us with any information about responses regarding Congleton, or even tell us how many said the Congleton site should be retained.

"If no site is provided for Congleton, then with the resulting damage to our environment, Cheshire East is clearly not serious about protecting our environment and it's not serious about achieving its goal of being carbon neutral by 2025.

"Our environment and the people of Congleton deserve much better than this."

Ralph Kemp, head of environmental services at Cheshire East, told the committee that when asked the question 'keep current service', which included a replacement site being found for Congleton, 50% of the consultation's 10,200 responses strongly supported that move.

A new contract for the delivery of the household waste recycling service in the borough needs to be commissioned and be operational by the end of March 2023.

Mr Kemp told the committee that Cheshire East tried to extend the lease at the Congleton site, but they were "unable to do so".

The current lease 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 commissioning and funding 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 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).

However, once procurement of Cheshire East's new HWRC contract was undertaken, the authority may have to make further recommendations to close further sites, which would be dependent on the cost of the new contract.

Cllr Laura Crane, Cheshire East portfolio holder for highways and waste, said that any contract was going to cost more than it had done in the past.

Cllr Crane (Labour) added: "I think we would be very, very lucky if we found ourselves with a contract that cost what it did and we do not have that additional budget to increase our costs with regard to HWRCs, and I cannot see that coming forward in the next couples of years as we get to 2023.

"In an ideal world, I would love to keep the capacity as it is, I think we have to be realistic and think what is the best opportunities that we can bring forward with that restricted budget.

"So, we do need to make some difficult decisions, but the biggest thing we need to push is that 'reduce and reuse', rather than recycle as well, we do need to be pushing people to think twice, seeing that we [Cheshire East] were listed as one of the highest producers of waste across the country.

"I think that should shock us as residents, it is quite disgraceful that we are one of the highest producers of waste, whether that is recycling or not, it's waste and in a world where we have finite resources, we all need to think twice about what we are producing.

"If having to travel a little bit further may increase people's ability to reuse and reduce then it may be an approach we have to take."

Mr Kemp told the committee that Cheshire East negotiated for "some time" with the owner of the current Congleton HWRC site, off Barn Road, to extend the lease.

Mr Kemp said: "I would guess the owner with their planning application believes they can make better use of the site as a retail development."

Cllr Ashley Farrall (Labour) queried whether the alternative sites that Cheshire East reportedly earmarked as a potential replacement location for Congleton would be identified in the report to cabinet.

Mr Kemp said that Cheshire East would not be releasing the information regarding the alternative sites.

Cllr Tony Dean (Conservative) felt there was an "opportunity" to replace the Congleton site via Arclid, which would "kill two birds with one stone"

Mr Kemp told the committee that there was an "initial" site search for a replacement site, but that had been "paused" whilst Cheshire East looked at the procurement review.

Cllr Crane confirmed that there was no ongoing search for a new site being carried out and reaffirmed that Cheshire East "did not have the budget" to fund a replacement site.

She added: "Unless members would like to suggest cuts elsewhere, I am sorry to be blunt there, but we are in an exceptionally tight financial situation at the moment.

"Difficult decisions need to be made and I cannot justify a new site at this time. I think it would be short-sighted to go ahead with this whilst we are looking at procuring a new lease.

"The chances of it [new lease] costing less than what it currently costs are practically zero, we will probably be coming back to the committee system to discuss the closure of additional sites and that is not a situation I want to be in, but it is where we are.

"So, would it be prudent to build a new site and then find that we could not run that site, we do not have the finances to run that site in the future.

"To me it seems a sensible proposal at the moment to not replace that site and to potentially replace it should we be able to finance the running of it once we have secured a new lease."

Cllr Paul Findlow (Conservative), chair of the committee, said: "You could develop a business case."

After a review of the waste tonnage in 2016, Cllr David Brown highlighted that following on from that, Cheshire East recommended that there should be a new recycling centre in Congleton and money was put aside into the Medium Term Financial Strategy to try and earmark money to move forward.

The Conservative councillor voiced that the consultation "assumed" that Congleton's tip was closing and it was a "foregone conclusion" without local residents being consulted.

Cllr Brown added: "I think if I put a cynical hat on, it was all just engineered to shut down the site in Congleton.

"As a council, I know money is tight, but there are certain things that are important to our residents, recycling and the environment is one of the major concerns and taking away this facility is one of the core features that our residents benefit from."

The Conservative councillor queried whether Cheshire East had tried to purchase the site from the current owner.

Cllr Brown added: "A Costa coffee takeaway compared to a waste recycling centre when we have got three Costa's in town already, it would be more appropriate to maintain the current facility.

"I think it's ludicrous, the consultation was flawed because the decision to shut Congleton was taken as there was no option to keep it open.

"Bear in mind, when the Congleton Link Road is opened, we have now built nearly 2,000 houses within the confines of Congleton and there is going to be over 4,500 extra households in this area and it just seems a nonsense to not have something where this will be the most cost-effective way of taking away that waste."

Mr Kemp said he could not comment on the negotiations with the existing owner of the site, but Cheshire East did consult on the provision of a "continued site at Congleton through its replacement" and understood they could not remain or extend on the current site.

Cllr Brown responded: "Have we [Cheshire East] actually made a proposition to purchase the existing site at Congleton or not?"

Mr Kemp said negotiations were carried out by the council's assets team and Cllr Brown would therefore be a given written response.

Cllr Sally Ann Holland (Conservative) said she would not be "partaking" in potentially purchasing a coffee from Costa at the existing Barn Road site.

Cllr Holland said: "A coffee shop opposite a sewage works does not sound very fair to me or very appropriate.

"This is such a big thing for Congleton residents. There is a proposed precept increase of 4.99 per cent — what on earth are our residents getting for their money? You're deciding on closing the recycling centre.

"We have taken in this borough a large percentage of the quota of houses as well, so our population has increased to a substantial amount and that needs to be taken into consideration.

"It's not conclusive with our green policy and strategy. Don't forget that in Congleton now, we are approaching 30,000 residents, I think this is very important.

"I think Macclesfield and Alsager should be very concerned because their population is going to be greatly impacted by the number of people visiting those recycling sites.

"The site in Congleton is used a great, great deal and during COVID when it was closed, it caused a huge amount of problems."

Cllr Crane said she would dispute "to the end of the earth" claims that Cheshire East had already "made their minds" up about Congleton prior to the consultation commencing.

When asked what Congleton residents are getting when a precept council tax increase of 4.99 per cent has been proposed, Cllr Crane raised the funding going towards the Congleton Leisure Centre refurbishment.

Cllr Crane added: "It was a difficult business case to make to justify that expense and that is coming forward to Congleton and it won't be very long before we are opening the link road as well.

"So, there are certainly some things coming to Congleton and it is not being ignored."

With Congleton's population expected to increase by 10,000, Cllr Suzie Akers Smith (Independent) felt it was "completely illogical" for Congleton to be left without a HWRC.

The cycling and walking champion for the borough, sought assurances that if there was a business case and/or climate change justification to create a new tip in Congleton, the council would "reassure" Congleton residents that a plot of land would be found and budgeted for.

Mr Kemp said that in response to the consultation, Cheshire East was conducting an environmental impact assessment which would be circulated alongside the cabinet papers.

Cllr Quentin Abel (Independent) proposed that Cheshire East made a last-ditch offer to Bluemantle, the current owner of the site, to purchase the land outright and retain the current Congleton HWRC site.

Cllr Crane said: "I do believe the assets team have exhausted every avenue to keep us on this site whether that be lease or purchase, but there is no way forward unfortunately, they have tried so hard to extend the lease and that would make it much easier to work going forward with an entire set of sites as we approach the new lease agreement.

"They really have tried everything to keep that site and I do not believe there would be any point in trying again."

Cllr Abel said: "I just have a gentle philosophy of never say never and circumstances change and people power.

"As everybody has acknowledged this is one of the largest consultations that has ever happened and it is not popular, so if you were wanting to set up a commercial operation, I would suggest it doesn't make good economical sense to set it up in a place that causes people to be resentful of it."

Cllr David Jefferay (Independent) felt the committee had not been provided with enough information to make an informed decision, but instead the scrutiny meeting was a "tick box exercise" and a "waste of time".

He added: "If we need to make hard decisions, I think what has been proposed is probably making the best out of a bad bunch."

The committee's recommendation will now go to council cabinet on March 9 for approval.