Alsager residents are being urged to sign a petition calling on Cheshire East Council to dump possible plans to close their tip so it can fund a new site at Congleton.
The council has recently consulted with the public on proposals for its future provision of household waste recycling centres across the borough, (writes local democracy reporter Belinda Ryan).
The cash-strapped council, which needs to plug a £100m four-year funding gap, asked residents for their views in the consultation on:
• All (seven) tips remain open as they are now;
• Poynton tip to close
• Bollington tip to close;
• Bollington, Middlewich and Poynton to close, leaving Crewe, Macclesfield, Knutsford and Alsager open.
But there was also a separate sub-option to all three core options presented, which would give consideration to closing the existing Alsager site to fund a new Congleton tip.
Alsager town councillor Michael Unett said: “Alsager doesn’t deserve to potentially lose its household waste recycling centre to pay for a new one in Congleton.”
Congleton’s tip closed in 2021 because the lease expired and the landowners did not wish to renew it.
The council said at the time it had no choice but to close the tip because it did not own the land.
Coun Unett told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: “The main recommendations are to keep to four core sites, which includes Alsager.
“Then somebody has added this sub-option, alternatively for consideration, that they could agree to go down to four sites but if you close Alsager that would provide a new household waste recycling centre in Congleton.”
Coun Unett said closing down Alsager and setting up a new site in Congleton had not been costed.
He said as well as the costs involved in closing down Alsager, there was still “a significant financial risk” because the council would have to lease or find land suitable for a new centre in Congleton, build the new centre and get the relevant permissions and licences in place for the operation of the new contract.
“There’s just so many different risks involved in doing that when, actually, you’ve got quite a well-established and well-used site already at Alsager,” he said.
“I don’t see what sense it would make to take those risks.”
He added: “I would hope the environment and communities committee wouldn’t be very minded to go for it because of the financial risks of the sub-option but I think, while that sub-option is on the table, the future of Alsager’s household waste recycling centre is in doubt so we want to do everything possible to see that that is rejected.”
The six-week public consultation on the household waste recycling centres closed in June and the results have not yet been published.
A decision on the permanent closure of some of the sites is expected to be made at next month’s meeting of the Environment and Communities Committee.
In the meantime, the centres at Bollington, Middlewich and Poynton have already been closed.
When the three sites shut at the beginning of this month the council said it was temporary, pending the outcome of the consultation.
The “Keep Alsager’s Household Waste Recycling Centre Open” petition, started by Coun Unett, can be found on the change.org website.
As of Monday, 718 people from a target of 1,000 had signed the petition.
