A suitable site for a biodiversity project must be found in Middlewich quickly to ensure the town doesn't lose out on £241,000 of funding.

Cheshire East approved British Salt's application for a 18,375sqm warehouse off Faulkner Drive but the scheme will result in the loss of biodiversity and a £241,147 payment has been secured to deliver habitat creation at an off-site location.

But the funding is ring-fenced and can only be spent on a site that increases biodiversity – and the time-frame for allocating the money is tight.

David Malcolm, the council's head of development management, told the strategic planning board: "Unfortunately there aren't any sites locally where we could provide that appropriate mitigation for biodiversity."

He said he believed the nearest suitable site was in Holmes Chapel.

Middlewich councillor Carol Bulman (Lab), who is not a planning board member but was speaking as a ward councillor, was clearly unhappy.

"We want all 106 monies that are raised in Middlewich to be spent in Middlewich," she told the planning board. "And I did ask when Tata [which owns British Salt] came to talk to us at Middlewich, the lime beds be considered… so there are places to spend this money in Middlewich."

Mr Malcolm said: "There may be a scheme and there may be something that might come forward on the lime beds because it has been talked about before, but there's nothing there at the moment and that's the issue."

Other councillors also argued the money should be spent in Middlewich.

Macclesfield Cllr Nick Mannion (Lab) said: "I think we've got to be as creative as possible to make sure… and it's a quarter of a million pounds."

He suggested the council could 'perhaps acquire a piece of land [in Middlewich] for some of this money, and then create a landscape there or re-wild it even'.

"I would be very loathe to allow this money to go – to say, it's in the 'too difficult box', therefore let's go and spend it in Holmes Chapel," he said.

Much of the remainder of the debate about the warehouse application focused around noise from reversing HGVs which might impact on some residents on Booth Lane.

Cllr Bulman asked that the HGV parking be moved to the other side of the site, closer to Faulkner Drive, but the applicant had said this was not possible because of the operation of the site.

The warehouse will be used for storage and distribution of salt products.

The application was approved by 10 councillors and one abstained.

It was agreed 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 timeframe.

In relation to noise, it was delegated to the head of planning and the chair to appropriately word the condition.

It was also conditioned that HGV movements to and from the site be between 6am and 8pm.

Speaking after the meeting, Cllr Bulman told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: "British Salt are Tata and they own the lime beds. The lime beds are huge and are perfect for re-wilding and biodiversity.

"For a few years I've been trying to get agreement from Tata that we can re-wild the lime beds and with this new money we could do a fantastic job there and all we want is a yes from them."