Leaders face down resignation calls after town plan controversy

Two council bosses have faced down calls to quit amid controversy surrounding the potential creation of a new town in Cheshire.

The government had proposed the rural village of Adlington for the plan, which is aimed at boosting housing, but many residents opposed the idea.

It has now emerged that Cheshire East Council leaders proposed Leighton in Crewe as an alternative.

The matter was discussed during a vote calling for both leader Nick Mannion and deputy leader Michael Gorman to stand down, which was rejected.

The vote was prompted following concerns about transparency over the new town issue.

The motion was denied, with 41 councillors voting against and 36 councillors backing it, while one abstended.

Protesters from Adlington attended the meeting, where Cheshire East Council also signed off its budget.

The council had unanimously backed a motion last year opposing the Adlington proposals.

Gorman said they were "keen to promote" Crewe's Leighton area instead, as a more preferable option.

However, a row broke out after a letter emerged signed by the leader and deputy leader sent to the New Towns Taskforce, the panel looking at locations for potential new towns.

Some people had raised concerns about how transparent the leaders were being.

The letter read: "Following your recent meeting in Crewe, I am writing on behalf of Cheshire East Council to reaffirm our support for the [redacted] new town proposals currently under consideration by the New Town Task Force".

A Conservative motion then called for the leader and deputy leader to resign.

Gorman said he did not write the letter, which contained his electronic signature, and it was sent when he was out of the country.

He said he had argued for more house housing to be built to support the new hospital planned for Leighton.

"This underlines our political approach at the time, we were keen to promote Leighton as the option," he said.

"Although we understood its weakness and we wanted to stay in the game for a second round in which Leighton could be considered."

Mannion said he had been subject to "months of hurtful personal abuse".

He said he and Gorman had been, with the exception of the letter, "completely and absolutely excluded from the Adlington new town process".

He referenced a story on the BBC News website in which a figure from developer Belport had been "publicly bemoaning a non-disclosure agreement".

During a House of Lords committee session in December, Belport director Niall Bolger said a government NDA preventing it from talking about the plans before an official announcement was "not helpful".

During the meeting, Mannion said he had received advice that the NDA was still in place but insisted he wanted to be transparent with residents anyway.

"I may be in trouble, but to inform the residents of Adlington is more important than to risk sanction by Homes England," he said.

"The NDA was applied to discussions between officers, the taskforce, the civil service and Belport and possibly others as I'm not allowed to see it. "

He said this excluded sharing of information between the leader and deputy leader, the council's members and the town and parish councils.

"Now I've spoken I may be in trouble, but my first loyalty is to this council and residents, not some Kafkaesque secret protocol," he said.

Discussing the motion for the resignations, Conservative leader Stewart Gardiner said sending the letter had been "ill judged" and "its implications may be irreversible and has led to a breach of trust".

Labour's Brian Puddicombe said there had been "so much hot air" around the letter, that it had "overshadowed" work done by organisations "bringing forward valid arguments about why the new town should not progress".

The Green Party's John Knight said the letter had left the council "with a huge credibility gap".

Gardiner said there should be an investigation into the situtation around the letter being sent.

"Some of the decisions that were taken in their name, I'm not suggesting they took them, that's why the questions are being asked," he said.

The government has been approached for comment.