WARRINGTON Borough Council has bought two major sites in its latest foray into the property market.

It has completed a £26.1 million deal to buy Eddie Stobart’s headquarters at Stretton Green Distribution Park from Ropemaker Properties.

The council has also purchased Talk Talk’s former Stanford House site in Birchwood, the Warrington Guardian understands.

It follows the authority’s deals to buy Birchwood Park for £211 million, as well as Matalan, DW Sports and Pure Gym in the town centre.

Commercial properties are being bought in an attempt to offset the impact of cuts in Government funding.

The latest acquisitions will further boost income for the authority through rent, which could be used to deliver services.

The Eddie Stobart site is expected to generate £1.2 million in rent a year.

But the deal has been met with anger from residents.

Cllr Judith Wheeler (LD – Appleton) outlined her concerns in an e-mail to council chief executive Steven Broomhead.

She said: “I realise you probably don’t have a duty to inform elected members of all the council’s financial transactions but given the imminent planning decision on the Eddie Stobart expansion, the Langtree proposals and the highly sensitive nature of such development in the green belt, not informing local councillors is unacceptable.

“How do we now explain this, as elected representatives, to our residents?

“The outcry is already out there on social media and we need to give answers.”

In June, Eddie Stobart revealed plans to build a new £75 million warehouse facility at the distribution park site.

It has been tipped to create 480 permanent jobs on the site and support another 250 off-site employees.