CAMPAIGNERS say they have been overwhelmed with offers to help fight a scheme to create a landfill dump in Mid Cheshire.

Protest group Middlewich Against Dumping (MAD) was furious when the Banks Group withdrew its application for a landfill at Kinderton Lodge - only to announce it is to resubmit the plans afresh.

The original application called for clay to be mined from Kinderton Lodge with the space used for landfill. A large percentage of the clay was to be used to cap the Cledford Lagoons.

Now the scheme is to be re-submitted without the proposal to cap the lagoons. That means all letters of protest already sent to Cheshire County Council objecting to the scheme will be declared null and void.

But protesters, who have spent thousands of hours campaigning, petitioning and writing letters only to have the slate wiped clean, say they will find it easier to fight the landfill plan this time round.

Middlewich town councillor Chalky White, who is a member of MAD and an organiser of CAD (Councils Against Dumping), said protesters were preparing to step up their campaign as soon as the application had been resubmitted, which was expected to be later this month.

'We will be encouraging as many people as possible to object to the landfill,' he said. 'Everyone who objected last time will write and we have got a lot more people who have offered to help this time round, because more people know about it.'

Cllr White says he is pleased the Banks Group has dropped its proposal to cap Cledford Lagoons - but he reckons that decision will be the company's downfall.

'A big part of the application was clay extraction and 48% of that clay was to be used to cap the lagoons,' he said.

'Now they will not be using that clay to cap the lagoons they will have a very difficult job to make a case for the need for that clay.

'It has to be used locally and there is simply not going to be a need for that amount of clay. You can get clay anywhere and there's no local need for it.'

The Banks Group withdrew the original application after consultation with the county council in February.

A spokesman said: 'Our new application for the Kinderton Lodge site, which is expected to be submitted in the next two weeks, will no longer include the reclamation of Cledford Lane Lagoons following objections from the Environment Agency and English Nature to that aspect of the proposal.

'Instead the restoration proposal will concentrate on the Kinderton Lodge site itself and the clay previously earmarked for the Cled-ford site would be used for the reclamation of other sites. Owners British Salt will now be responsible for the future of the Cledford Lagoons.

'We understand that the planning department at Cheshire County Council will be contacting those people who have already made representations to inform them about the submission of the new application when it has been made, which will give residents an opportunity to comment on the proposals in the new application.'