Permanent closure for three Cheshire tips

Three tips in Cheshire that were temporarily shut earlier this year will not reopen after a council voted for their permanent closure.

The sites in Bollington, Middlewich and Poynton were temporarily closed in August ahead of a review of household waste recycling centres.

Cheshire East Council has faced significant financial challenges in recent months, and the authority said it needed to make "difficult decisions" and reduce its spending.

Eight councillors on the local authority's environment and communities committee voted in support of the plans with five voting against.

A number of public speakers were at the meeting with most raising concerns about the plans.

They included the organiser of a petition which received more than 7,000 signatures and town councillors from Bollington, Poynton and Congleton.

Councillors in Bollington had called for the decision to be delayed to allow them time to work with the local authority on proposals to potentially have the town council contribute to the running costs.

A statement read out on behalf of councillor Sue Adams called for the Cheshire East authority to talk to Stockport Council to allow residents in the north of the borough to use the site in Marple, which is four miles away from the village of Disley.

She said that the suggestion had been "dismissed" by the council.

Congleton town councillor Suzy Firkin also called for a mobile tip service, which is being offered to people in Bollington, Middlewich and Poynton, to also be available in Congleton after the site there closed in 2021.

Middlewich councillor Garnet Marshall highlighted the landfill site where waste goes to was in the town, adding: "So people will have to drive past this to end up at a dump site which will then end up back in Middlewich."

After the meeting, campaigner and Bollington councillor John Stewart said he was "absolutely disgusted" by the decision.

"It's really disappointing they can't see the damage it's going to cause," he said.

Ahead of the meeting, Mick Warren, the chair of the council's environment and communities committee, said keeping services as they were was "simply not affordable".

Cheshire East Council's four remaining household waste recycling centres are in Alsager, Crewe, Knutsford and Macclesfield.

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