Cheshire East Council's solar farm at Crewe may be able to supply energy to the rebuilt Leighton Hospital in the future, a councillor has said.

The 4.1mw farm was built to provide the majority of the electricity required by the council's compost plant at Leighton, which is operated by a contractor, Biowise.

The council insists the project is benefiting Cheshire East residents as the compost plant takes in all green and food waste collected in the 'green' bins from across the borough.

But Cllr Liz Wardlaw (Odd Rode, Con) asked for clarification on how residents were benefiting, especially since they were now being charged for their garden waste collections.

Cllr Wardlaw asked at yesterday's meeting of the corporate policy committee: "I'm interested in the funding of that… in how we have a solar farm that we are providing that provides energy for a plant we do not own, and we are charging residents to deliver their waste to that plant."

Cllr Nick Mannion (Macclesfield, Lab) told her: "Cheshire East are the primary, but not the sole supplier of the feed source.

"It will have a considerable net benefit to Cheshire East, because it will significantly reduce the cost of processing the green waste on that site, which is a cycle of about six weeks."

Cllr Mannion said the plant took in green waste from as far afield as southern Scotland.

He added: "There is a possibility, but it's only a possibility, it may also, at some point in the future, be able to supply energy to the rebuilt Leighton Hospital, which is within about half a mile away.

"But that's a possibility because there are technical challenges around that.

"But I can assure you, the solar farm has a direct benefit to Cheshire East as a local authority."

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