PLANS to build a new waste transfer station are not 'off the table' but residents have been told a future site will not be 'ideal'.

The Labour-run council’s proposed £7.83 million facility, on Winwick Road, was refused by the development management committee in June last year.

But around £900,000 was spent on the failed scheme.

The application had been met with anger from residents and politicians following fears over traffic, odours, air quality and vermin.

Council leader Cllr Russ Bowden was told the site was a ‘non-starter from the word go’ during Tuesday’s leader’s forum at Orford Community Hub.

But he highlighted the issues facing the authority on the matter.

“It is not off the table,” he said.

“It is just not going to be on that site (Winwick Road).

“In terms of the site, it makes the most sense that if you are going to have a waste transfer station it is going to be somewhere central to Warrington.

“I am not sure that any site in the town centre area is going to be ideal.

“The recommendation from officers was that was the most appropriate site to take forward at that time.

“It wasn’t necessarily ideal.

“This is the problem you have often got – what is the best available option that you have got?

“It is never going to be ideal.”

With Warrington’s waste transported to Widnes where is it collected into larger amounts before being removed for disposal elsewhere, the council wanted to provide a building in the borough where waste can be collected for a short time before it is transported for processing and disposal.

The revenue saving anticipated to be generated by building the station was in the region of £350,000 to 400,000 per year.

Cllr Bowden (LAB – Birchwood) says building a new station makes 'financial sense'.