Work should have started today (Monday) on the Gypsy and Traveller transit site at Middlewich but it has been delayed after kestrels moved on to the land.

Planning permission was granted for the site on land off Cledford Lane nearly two years ago.

A report to yesterday (July 10th) meeting of the economy and growth committee stated: "We have moved a step closer with the completion of our pre-construction activity, including securing planning approval, Homes funding and, following tendering, we are about to move into the construction phase."

But when Cllr Nick Mannion (Macclesfield, Lab) asked when work was going to start, he was told it would now be delayed by a few weeks.

Head of housing Karen Carsberg said: "We were hoping to start today, that was our start on site, unfortunately we have nesting kestrels and, therefore, we're prohibited from going on to start work on site at the moment. I'm just waiting for an update, apparently it could be the end of August now."

This latest delay is one in on a long line of many at the Cledford Lane site, which has a chequered history.

Cheshire East granted itself permission for the transit site in April 2015 – but work never started and that permission ran out in May 2018.

When the land was earmarked again for a transit site there were numerous objections from local residents and Cheshire East's Middlewich councillors at the time.

They said, although there was a need for a site – as Cheshire East doesn't currently have a Gypsy and Traveller transit site and there has been a rise in the number of unauthorised encampments – this location, close to an industrial site, was not suitable.

Planning permission was finally granted for the Cledford site at a meeting of the strategic planning board in August 2021.