The investigation into who signed an official letter in the name of Cheshire East's leader and deputy which appeared to support the Adlington new town proposal is still ongoing.

At the corporate policy meeting on April 30, councillors were told the report was expected by the end of May.

The Local Democracy Reporting Service has now been told the investigation is not yet complete.

The letter, which was sent to New Towns Task Force chair Sir Michael Lyons in June of last year, bore the electronic signatures of council leader Nick Mannion (Macclesfield, Lab) and deputy Michael Gorman (Wilmslow, Ind) and appeared to show the council's support for plans for a new 20,000-home town at Adlington – when the council is strongly opposed to it.

It led to calls for the two to resign and a vote of no confidence in their leadership, which they survived.

But it has since emerged that Cllr Gorman had not even been in the country when his signature was put to the letter – and that he had not agreed to it.

Both leaders have objected to the new town proposal and Cllr Mannion told the LDRS in March: "Both myself and the deputy leader want to get to the bottom of the circumstances around how the letter was sent out with that wording."

Although Adlington is not on the shortlist of seven sites the government has since put forward for possible new towns, many councillors feel the letter was directly responsible for it being included in the initial 12, especially as it was referred to by Sir Michael during a select committee hearing earlier this year.

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