Planning in Alderton
Published April 2022
Housing development is a contentious subject and people are always concerned about the conflicting objectives of development on rural greenfield locations versus the clear need for affordable homes for local people. The notes below explain how we've got to where we are today and how various bits of the planning system interact.
In summary the situation is:
What affects housing development in Alderton?
1. Planning is controlled by the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) which sets out the government's planning policies and how regional and local authorities should apply these. The NPPF requires that local authorities identify all of their housing needs for the next five years and can demonstrate how they will meet those requirements. If they can't do so then there's a presumption in favour of development.
2. Planning in our region is governed by the Joint Core Strategy (JCS) - a partnership between Gloucester City Council, Cheltenham Borough Council and Tewkesbury Borough Council, which sets out a strategic planning framework that assesses future growth needs for housing, employment and infrastructure, the best strategy for delivering growth and the allocation of strategic sites to meet the needs.
The Adopted Joint Core Strategy from December 2017 is the latest version and includes Policy SP2 (see Page 17 > 26) that identifies how and where new housing will be developed. In the JCS housing development is targeted within or close to existing urban centres with a limited amount in service villages, where lower levels of development will be allocated through the Tewkesbury Borough Plan (see point 3) and neighbourhood plans (see point 6). Alderton is classified as a service village, which have a school, shop and transport links and are assessed as being appropriate for some development.
3. Each of Gloucester, Cheltenham and Tewkesbury develop their own Borough Plans (aka 'Local Plan' or 'Local Development Plan') that identify in more detail how development will take place. The latest version of the the Tewkesbury Borough Plan is the 'Pre-Submission' version from October 2019 that includes detailed maps of Housing Allocations & Settlement Boundaries including Alderton.
4. Back in February 2015 Tewkesbury Borough Council published the Tewkesbury Borough plan - approach to rural sites, 2011-2031 which identified 752 houses required to be delivered by Service Villages, which was disaggregated to each village. Alderton's share was new houses 46. You can see this in the table on Page 27. At this time Alderton had 48 new houses either built or committed.
Subsequently further development took Alderton's new houses to 77, an increase of 26% in the size of the village from 2011.
5. Alderton also has the Alderton Neighbourhood Development Plan (ANDP). Neighbourhood Plans are part of the NPPF and although they can't be used to stop development they are formally used in planning to consider where local people want development and what it looks like. Tewkesbury Borough Council has a useful Neighbourhood Planning section.
6. Alderton's NDP passed in July 2018 by referendum of local residents and was approved by 98% of votes on a voter turnout of just over 59%.
It covers the period from 2011 to 2031 and did not identify additional sites for housing development for the following reasons:
So why do we get planning applications?
7. The NPPF requires that local authorities identify all of their housing needs for the next five years but Tewkesbury Borough Council can only currently demonstrate a housing supply to meet 3.83 years - see Five year housing land supply statement, January 2022.
8. Developers such as Cala Homes seek to exploit this by making repeated planning applications and if rejected appealing them to the Planning Inspector. This costs hundreds of thousands of pounds for every appeal but depending on the Planning Inspector some of them succeed. This is why Cala Homes appeal to the Planning Inspector for 28 houses off of Willowbank Road was successful.
9. You can also read Alderton Parish Council's submission to the Planning Inspector which explains why the Parish Council did not support the development.
10. Cala Homes are unlikely to be the last planning application or appeal as developers seek to exploit the time before Tewkesbury Borough Council can demonstrate a five year housing supply. This is why the Tewkesbury Garden Town is important as it aims to deliver over 10,000 houses which will meet the requirement for a five year housing supply for years to come.
Until then expect more applications.
Housing development is a contentious subject and people are always concerned about the conflicting objectives of development on rural greenfield locations versus the clear need for affordable homes for local people. The notes below explain how we've got to where we are today and how various bits of the planning system interact.
In summary the situation is:
- Since 2014 Alderton has grown by 26% or 77 new houses, including fifteen two bedroom and eighteen three bedroom houses. This excludes the 28 Cala Homes approved on appeal to the Panning Inspector in September 2021.
- Alderton is not identified as a location for further development in either the regional Joint Core Strategy (see 2) or Tewkesbury Borough Plan (see 3 and 4).
- Nevertheless Tewkesbury Borough Council can't demonstrate a five year housing supply (see points 1 and 7 below).
- ...so developers will make speculative applications and appeals (see 8) until Tewkesbury Borough Council can demonstrate a five year housing supply.
What affects housing development in Alderton?
1. Planning is controlled by the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) which sets out the government's planning policies and how regional and local authorities should apply these. The NPPF requires that local authorities identify all of their housing needs for the next five years and can demonstrate how they will meet those requirements. If they can't do so then there's a presumption in favour of development.
2. Planning in our region is governed by the Joint Core Strategy (JCS) - a partnership between Gloucester City Council, Cheltenham Borough Council and Tewkesbury Borough Council, which sets out a strategic planning framework that assesses future growth needs for housing, employment and infrastructure, the best strategy for delivering growth and the allocation of strategic sites to meet the needs.
The Adopted Joint Core Strategy from December 2017 is the latest version and includes Policy SP2 (see Page 17 > 26) that identifies how and where new housing will be developed. In the JCS housing development is targeted within or close to existing urban centres with a limited amount in service villages, where lower levels of development will be allocated through the Tewkesbury Borough Plan (see point 3) and neighbourhood plans (see point 6). Alderton is classified as a service village, which have a school, shop and transport links and are assessed as being appropriate for some development.
3. Each of Gloucester, Cheltenham and Tewkesbury develop their own Borough Plans (aka 'Local Plan' or 'Local Development Plan') that identify in more detail how development will take place. The latest version of the the Tewkesbury Borough Plan is the 'Pre-Submission' version from October 2019 that includes detailed maps of Housing Allocations & Settlement Boundaries including Alderton.
4. Back in February 2015 Tewkesbury Borough Council published the Tewkesbury Borough plan - approach to rural sites, 2011-2031 which identified 752 houses required to be delivered by Service Villages, which was disaggregated to each village. Alderton's share was new houses 46. You can see this in the table on Page 27. At this time Alderton had 48 new houses either built or committed.
Subsequently further development took Alderton's new houses to 77, an increase of 26% in the size of the village from 2011.
5. Alderton also has the Alderton Neighbourhood Development Plan (ANDP). Neighbourhood Plans are part of the NPPF and although they can't be used to stop development they are formally used in planning to consider where local people want development and what it looks like. Tewkesbury Borough Council has a useful Neighbourhood Planning section.
6. Alderton's NDP passed in July 2018 by referendum of local residents and was approved by 98% of votes on a voter turnout of just over 59%.
It covers the period from 2011 to 2031 and did not identify additional sites for housing development for the following reasons:
- Alderton had already had 77 new houses developed against the share of disaggregation in the Tewkesbury Borough Plan of 46 new houses
- No further sites were identified in either the JCS or the Tewkesbury Borough Plan
So why do we get planning applications?
7. The NPPF requires that local authorities identify all of their housing needs for the next five years but Tewkesbury Borough Council can only currently demonstrate a housing supply to meet 3.83 years - see Five year housing land supply statement, January 2022.
8. Developers such as Cala Homes seek to exploit this by making repeated planning applications and if rejected appealing them to the Planning Inspector. This costs hundreds of thousands of pounds for every appeal but depending on the Planning Inspector some of them succeed. This is why Cala Homes appeal to the Planning Inspector for 28 houses off of Willowbank Road was successful.
9. You can also read Alderton Parish Council's submission to the Planning Inspector which explains why the Parish Council did not support the development.
10. Cala Homes are unlikely to be the last planning application or appeal as developers seek to exploit the time before Tewkesbury Borough Council can demonstrate a five year housing supply. This is why the Tewkesbury Garden Town is important as it aims to deliver over 10,000 houses which will meet the requirement for a five year housing supply for years to come.
Until then expect more applications.
