1,100 homes Initial plans for housing estate near GCHQ
AFORMAL plan for a huge new housing development on the edge of Cheltenham should be submitted within a few months.
Developer St Modwen Developments and land promoter Midlands Land Portfolio Ltd have put an environmental impact assessment scoping report to planners at Cheltenham Borough Council.
Such reports are seen as the start processing to a formal planning application - it essentially asks the council’s planners whether the developers must provide an environmental impact assessment as part of any application.
This report contains little detail but it says the developer and promoter are looking for consent for 1,100 homes to be built on a triangle of land to the north of GCHQ, between Old Gloucester Road to the north, Hayden sewage works in the south and the very edge of the Hester’s Way estate in the east.
As well as the houses and flats the plans are likely to include a new primary school with early years provision, with dual-use sports pitches for the pupils and as a community open space, and a community ‘hub’ with land set aside for commercial and “community and learning” use.
The report adds there will be: “Open space, sports pitch, formal areas of play and informal amenity space including, a mix of landscaping, green infrastructure, walking and cycling routes and sustainable drainage systems.”
It adds: “The approach to master planning integrates urban design and landscape by promoting the existing established landscape features and integrating them into a green infrastructure network delivering mobility corridors, recreation space, ecological enhancement and drainage infrastructure.”
The report says the land is not subject to any protection or designation.
The site is part of a huge swathe of fields on the very west of Cheltenham earmarked for houses and offices as part of the town’s Cyber Central Scheme, and these houses would be at the northern end of the new developments.
In total it could see 3,700 houses and flats built as well as offices to create a cyber hub designed to attract hi-tec companies, creating a critical mass around GCHQ.
Cheltenham Borough Council leader Rowena Hay (LD, Oakley) said of the overall plans: “With the Golden Valley development, we have an outstanding opportunity to go further, creating an internationally significant technology campus that will lead the way in the UK’S mission to be the safest place to do online business and a world leader in cyber security.”
St Modwen and Midlands Land Portfolio say, despite their application site being part of that overall scheme, they are able to proceed with the houses they want to build independent of the rest of the project.
With the Golden Valley development, we have an opportunity to go further, creating an internationally significant technology campus that will lead the way in the UK’S mission.
Rowena Hay