Four possible sites have been identified in Middlewich for a biodiversity project to offset the loss resulting from a British Salt warehouse application.

As part of the approval for the 18,375sqm warehouse off Faulkner Drive in February, British Salt agreed to pay £241,147 to deliver habitat creation at an off-site location to compensate for the loss of biodiversity.

Middlewich councillor Carol Bulman (Lab), who attended the meeting, was furious when planning officers said there was no suitable site in the town and the money would go to habitat land at Holmes Chapel.

The strategic planning board agreed at that meeting in February that officers would work with Middlewich town councillors to try and find a suitable site within the town to mitigate for biodiversity – but it was stressed the criteria was strict and so was the time-frame.

Cllr Bulman told the Local Democracy Reporting Service this week, things are now more hopeful.

"We are looking at four sites. We've got expert advice and support from Cheshire Wildlife Trust and Natural England and our own environmental department," she said.

"We're feeling positive and we're certainly energetically pursuing it. We're not letting sleeping dogs lie."

She said she could not reveal the location of the sites under consideration at this stage.

The criteria which has to be met for a suitable site is extremely strict and must be adhered to.

At a meeting of the strategic planning board this week (May 4) head of planning David Malcolm told councillors it was becoming more common for such mitigation to be nowhere near the application site.

"That's just something that we're going to have to get used to because it's a borough wide issue in terms of biodiversity net gain," he said.

The planning chief's comments came during discussions on two completely separate planning applications on Wednesday – one for Wardle near Nantwich and one for Shavington.

In both cases the off-site mitigation for biodiversity loss had been earmarked for land on the Adlington Estate, north of Macclesfield.

In the case of the Shavington application, the planning board agreed to delegate that matter back to officers and the committee chair so they could discuss with the developer, the council's ecologists and the local councillors, the possibility of using an alternative, closer site.

As in the case with Middlewich, it was stressed this had to be done within a very short time-frame and the site must meet the stringent conditions