COMMUNITY leaders are pledging a final concerted effort to thwart plans for a controversial landfill in Middlewich - and they are inviting residents to support them.

Cheshire County Council approved plans for the development at Kinderton Lodge last week, but councillors have bounced back and pledged to keep fighting.

When county council members approved the plans, they did so on the understanding that they would be passed on to Secretary of State John Prescott. But there is no legal guarantee the Deputy Prime Minister will even look at the plans.

Middlewich mayor Chalky White said: 'The town council meets on Monday and we will be considering our response and I am sure we will all want to continue our opposition in any way we can.

'I am sure we will write to Mr Prescott as a council, to try to draw his attention to the manifold problems with this application, and I know County Councillor Mark Dickson and the CW10 community group are organising their own communications.

'I call on any other individuals opposed to the landfill to write and point out the planning process was flawed.'

CW10 spokesman Andy Bailey said: 'We have already drafted a letter to the Secretary of State and are consulting our members on a possible march on every road into Middlewich, all at the same time to restrict traffic movements in a similar way to the additional traffic the development will bring.'

Sproston, Byley and Cranage parish councils are also protesting and members of the Holmes Chapel Action Group have vowed to fight the decision.

A spokesman said: 'Objections from town, parish and borough councils, 941 residents and 1,969 petitioners were overridden by the nine-member council committee. Whatever happened to democracy?

Where was their mandate?

'There was an attempt to defer for further information regarding the impact of the development on traffic flows in the surrounding area, but the chief planning officer said that, even if there was a report showing an adverse effect, it would not affect his recommendation to approve because places like Holmes Chapel are outside the consultation area - ie irrelevant.

'There is little doubt that the village is under threat and we are contacting John Prescott to examine the plans very closely.' nLetters should be addressed to: The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, Eland House, Bressenden Place, London SW1 5DU.