Cheshire East Council leaders have rejected a call to remove a controversial cycle lane in Sandbach before reviewing consultation feedback.

Speaking at today's (9 March) meeting of the council cabinet, Cllr Mike Benson called for the infrastructure to be completely removed from Old Middlewich Road.

He said: "At the council meeting held in December last year I asked for the Old Middlewich Road scheme to be removed completely, restoring the road and its parking spaces to the position before the first active travel scheme was introduced."

The Conservative councillor said that the Sandbach town council planning committee made a similar request during a meeting on 15 February.

This claim was later disputed by Cllr Laura Crane, the cabinet member for highways, who said the committee approved amendments to the scheme, such as narrowing the lane, restoring the bays and reducing the number of bollards.

Minutes for the town council planning meeting in question state: "For the Cycle Lane on Old Middlewich Road, members would prefer that the scheme be abandoned with the road returned to the state it was before the cycle lane. Members believe the funds can be better spent on cycling infrastructure elsewhere."

Cllr Benson went onto cite two petitions that have called for the removal of the cycle lane, one with over 1,300 signatures, as evidence of local opposition to the scheme.

Cllr Benson asked Cllr Crane: "Can the cabinet member indicate when the decision will be made to abandon the scheme in good time to support local residents and businesses with post-Covid recovery."

"At the December cabinet meeting, I believe it was you who requested that we were to make no further changes without going out for consultation. Obviously now we've done that, as you said, it ended on 3 March and we are currently reviewing that feedback," Cllr Crane said in response.