A Middlewich councillor who controversially voted against the second part of Cheshire East's local plan despite warnings it could de-rail the whole process, said he had to put his town first.

Labour councillors Jonathan Parry and Mike Hunter both voted against adopting the Site Allocations and Development Policies Document (SADPD) at Wednesday's full council meeting, despite warnings from deputy council leader Craig Browne (Ind) that 'the consequences of rejecting the SADPD at this stage really don't bear thinking about'.

The council says the plan is central to achieving sustainable development in Cheshire East and preventing speculative building.

Speaking after the meeting, Cllr Parry told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: "We've been consistent from the start. We've sided with residents. Middlewich did not want the [Traveller] transit site.

Cllr Jonathan Parry

"We genuinely believed it was the wrong place for this site and we've never changed our minds on that and it would be wrong for us to vote for a plan that actually included that in it."

He said generally he was happy with the SADPD but 'I couldn't bring myself to vote for it with that site allocation in there'.

He added: "There's a lot of good things in there as well, but I'm a Middlewich ward councillor and I've got to do what's right for my town and the area that I represent. Mike's exactly the same."

Middlewich councillor Carol Bulman (Lab) voted for the SADPD on Wednesday (December 14).

She told the LDRS after the meeting she was still opposed to the siting of the Traveller transit site in Middlewich.

Cllr Carol Bulman

"I don't think the fact it's still in there, down Cledford Lane, means it's the right place at all," said Cllr Bulman.

"My views on the location of the transit site have not changed at all, it's just I think, sometimes, you've got to look at the bigger picture and, at the moment, I think the environment is hugely important and protecting those green spaces is important.

"What we have done, our achievement, is to make sure we have managed to reduce the prospect of more speculative building in Cheshire East."

She added she wasn't convinced the transit site would get built.

"Given the current financial level of funding, we've got terrible funding at the moment, at what point will that get built?" said Cllr Bulman.

"To me it seems very likely that it's not going to be anything that's imminent, which doesn't mean to say we don't need one, we do need a transit site, but we need it in the right place and that's not there."