MIDDLEWICH residents are being urged to join together and make a final push in the fight to stop the Ansa waste transfer site from bringing an enormous influx of HGV traffic through the town.

Cheshire East Council was granted permission by its planning board in 2015 to build a borough-wide waste transfer facility in Cledford Lane.

The controversial waste strategy, the first of its kind in the country, means that waste from across all towns within Cheshire East Council will be brought into Middlewich, bringing with it more than 1,000 vehicle movements a day and more than 400 staff working at the site in Cledford Lane.

Campaign group Action Against Ansa, led by Middlewich councillor David Latham, has fought against the plans since 2015, but has not been able to stop the site from being built and opening earlier this year with a third of the fleet now working from the site.

However, a public inquiry was officially called by the traffic commissioner due to concerns surrounding traffic congestion and air quality.

It has now been announced that the public inquiry will be held on Thursday, February 15, at 11am at Congleton Town Hall.

Cllr Latham is now appealing to the Middlewich community to attend the meeting and support the campaign’s ‘last chance saloon’.

“We need as many people to turn up as possible,” Cllr Latham said. “This is the last chance saloon really for us to stop it.

“The clear message is that we need numbers of people there to show the traffic commissioner the depth of feeling in Middlewich and the number of people who are against all these traffic movements.

“People are beginning to see huge problems and that is with only a third of the total vehicle movements at the minute. People are already getting sick of it. The HGVs are waking people up at out of hours times, we’ve had trucks speeding past each other constantly and this only a third of the fleet.

“On this occasion the traffic commissioner has already decided that there is a case to answer and Cheshire East Council is going to have to explain clearly what they are going to do to make this site work. If people are concerned about it, they need to show it now. This is the last chance we will get. The commissioner has the power to close this site down if they’re not happy.”