KNUTSFORD Town Council has voiced its concern over the potential loss of the lorry park off Mobberley Road in Knutsford.

Councillors expressed their concern during a discussion over a proposal to allocate the site for travelling showperson plots.

The council is being asked for its views as part of Cheshire East Council’s consultation on the second stage of the Local Plan – the Site Allocations and Development Policies Document.

This will allocate additional sites across the borough and set out further detailed planning policies.

The document does not allocate further housing or employment land in Knutsford, but there is an allocation for a travelling showperson site on Mobberley Road.

Travelling showpeople are members of a group organised for holding fairs, circuses or shows.

Councillors supported Cllr Stewart Gardiner’s proposal to express the town council’s concern to Cheshire East over the proposed loss of the lorry park, which it believed had a significant use.

The council is to ask to see evidence of what Cheshire East intends to do to replace the lorry park should the travelling showperson site be brought forward.

Cllr Peter Coan said: “With the frequent M6 closures and lorry drivers stuck in traffic and starting to approach the end of their drivers’ hours it’s vitally important there is a facility to pull off the motorway and park overnight if needs be.

“There is space on this site for 11 or 12 articulated lorries and for them to turn, and for this site to be lost I doubt whether we could find a suitable 12-day articulated lorry site in this vicinity.”

He questioned the allocation of the site for a travelling showpersons site in view of the disadvantages of losing the lorry park.

Cllr Gardiner said that if lorries were pulling off the motorway at night looking for somewhere to stop he would prefer to see an improved lorry park “which properly serves those people rather than them ending up in lay-bys or pulling up at the side of the road”.

Cllr Coan said lorries regularly parked up at night in the lay-by in Mobberley Road, as well as in Middlewich Road and Manchester Road.

The consultation on the second stage of the Local Plan runs until October 22.