I WOULD like to respond to Cllr William Walmsley’s comments in last week’s Guardian’s letters page, as it unsurprisingly embodies many of the Middlewich First traits that have come to frustrate so many residents in the town.

Middlewich Town Council welcomes the Government’s £48m contribution towards construction of the Eastern Bypass.

Below is my motion in full; you can judge if this is as ‘unreasonable’ as Cllr Walmsley suggests.

I believe this motion is vital for Middlewich and deserves not to be watered down by Cllr Walmsley or his Middlewich First colleagues: The town motto is ‘Piecing the past together.’ It is crucial we learn from the mistakes of the past. Middlewich cannot sustain another cul-de-sac industrial estate off Holmes Chapel Road, so we require two absolute guarantees from CEC: 1) Construction must start from the Booth Lane end and a crossing of the railway and a suitable link road for HGVs to link the new bypass to Cledford Lane industrial area are completed first.

2) There must be no new development on the bypass route until it is completed and open for public use.

With a comment to include the following two recommendations 1) That once the Bypass and Link Road to Cledford Lane are completed HGVs are stopped from using Booth Lane/Lewin Street/Leadsmithy Street except for access.

2) Once the Bypass and link road to Cledford Lane are completed,a full traffic calming scheme should be installed on Booth Lane / Lewin Street which include upgrading the pavements outside the White Horse for the safety of pedestrians.

The original bypass was to be built in two halves: the first is complete and is called Pochin Way.

The second half is not built, no longer has planning permission and will never be built.

Despite what Middlewich First councillors stated at the meeting, it did have government money promised (through such schemes as the Regional Growth Fund).

Despite this we now have an industrial cul-de-sac instead of a bypass.

We are in fact in a worse position than we have previously been, because the new bypass route – while it has government funding for about three quarters of the total amount needed – does not have planning permission and none of the mandatory investigations have been carried out.

Worse still, Cheshire East Council have taken the unusual step of putting time limits on Section 106 funds from developments – which means that, if the money is not used within a certain time, then CEC can spend it elsewhere.

Why would they do that? Cheshire East Council is no friend of Middlewich. I will gladly thank CEC when the bypass is complete.

Until then, I will continue to stand up for my town and its residents.

Cllr Walmsley might want to ‘congratulate Cheshire East’ but right now, Middlewich needs fighters not appeasers.

I will not apologise if my passion showed itself at the full council meeting.

My motion was proposed and had been seconded, so there was no reason, justification or standing order that could prevent a vote being taken.

But the Mayor refused to take the vote anyway; she closed the meeting.

Middlewich First simply didn’t want the discomfort of deciding to either agree with a Labour councillor or vote against a sensible motion.

I was elected to do my best for Middlewich and its residents.

Middlewich First will never realise that it’s up to us to fight our corner, as Cheshire East will not do it for us.

Cllr Mike Hunter Middlewich Town Council