Middlewich Town Council is looking into the possibility of taking over the ownership of its three main car parks in case Cheshire East tries imposing charges in the future.

Councillors unanimously backed a motion from Cllr Mike Hunter (Lab) to look into the viability of the town council owning and adopting Civic Way Car Park, Southway Car Park and Seabank.

Cllr Hunter, who is also a borough councillor, voted against Cheshire East's bid to bring in charges in the town at a highways meeting in September.

Cllr Mike Hunter

The motion was proposed at a meeting of the the town council this week by Cllr David Williams (Lab), in the absence of Cllr Hunter.

Cllr Williams said: "I think what Mike wants to do is look at the possibility of taking ownership so we never have to fight that battle again and so, on that basis, I think that's an excellent idea but the proposition is only looking for this to be investigated, it's not a decision."

Cllr Jonathan Parry (Lab) seconded the motion saying although the proposal to by Cheshire East bring in charges had been defeated last year 'it will be brought back in another form at some point'.

Cllr Jonathan Parry

"The only way we have to stop this in Middlewich … is getting ownership of them ourselves," he said.

"I fully support this because I do not want to see car parking charges, I think would that be the nail in the coffin for our town centre."

Cllr Carol Bulman (Lab) said the Civic Way Car Park had just been re-surfaced by Cheshire East.

"Seabank isn't great, but there is work to be done," she said.

"We need just to be mindful of the fact there's no such thing as a free car park, as Cllr Parry said there is the business rate to pay."

She added: "I still very much support us taking control of our car parks."

Middlewich is one of the towns and villages in Cheshire East which doesn't pay for parking. Others include Sandbach, Alsager, Holmes Chapel, Bollington, Poynton and Prestbury.

Crewe, Macclesfield, Wilmslow and Nantwich have the highest charges – with some Cheshire East car parks charging 80p for the first hour.

In Nantwich there are no free car parks in the town.