IN a recent letter to the Guardian, Cllr Michael Baynham suggested that I and indeed the Local Plan Working Group and the Labour administration had already decided that certain areas of Cheshire West and Chester would be more likely to have gypsy and traveller sites than Winsford.

Had Cllr Baynham as a fellow Winsford councillor bothered to talk to me he would have discovered that my quotes to the Guardian were specifically about the suitability of Winsford as a site.

I did not in fact give any indication in my comments to the Guardian that other areas were more likely to have traveller sites, in fact when asked specifically by the reporter about other areas I clearly stated that I could only give an opinion on Winsford.

If the Guardian choose to derive from my comments that I was suggesting other areas were more likely sites, that is their choice however I made no such comments regarding any area except Winsford and those comments were based entirely on the suitability of Winsford for a site, the Winsford Neighbourhood Plan and the order of priority of suitability within the list compiled by officers of Cheshire West and Chester.

The list of sites were drawn up by officers of Cheshire West and Chester not councillors.

The report will come to the Local Plan Working Group but the group made up of councillors did not compile the list of sites.

Cllr Stephen Burns Winsford Swanlow and Dene Ward