

Church Road, Leckhampton
Introduction
Welcome to this public consultation regarding the proposed development of 42 homes on land north of Church Road, Leckhampton. The consultation is hosted by Black Box Planning on behalf of Redrow Homes.
Redrow Homes is one of the UK’s leading housebuilders. They care about the quality of the homes that they build and the developments they create. They are committed to delivering thriving communities and creating better places to live, through their passion for design, sustainability and innovation. They have a reputation for designing high quality homes that are attractive and meet the modern-day needs of their customers, which is reflected in the Brizen View and Brizen Park neighbourhood.
They are proud of the positive contribution they make by providing local economic development opportunities, contributing to local facilities such as schools, affordable housing, public open space and encouraging sustainable living such as the use of public transport. They believe that this proposal for new family housing off Church Road reflects these values. In light of the current public health situation, this public consultation is provided entirely online. You are welcome to submit your comments at the bottom of this page.
The Project Team
Redrow are supported by an expert project team extending to all technical matters such as planning consultancy, design and architecture, highways and transport, drainage and flood risk, landscape, arboriculture and ecology. All of the appointed experts have carried out a variety of assessments to inform the evolution of the proposal, including undertaking careful assessment of the wildlife and trees on the site.








- Planning – Black Box Planning
- Design and Architecture – Barton Willmore
- Landscape – The Richards Partnership
- Arboriculture and Ecology – Tyler Grange
- Heritage – The Environmental Design Partnership
- Highways and Transport – PFA Consulting
- Drainage and Flood Risk – JNP Group Consulting Engineers
- Ground Investigation – CGL
The site now
Existing Site
The land is currently private with no wider public accessibility, aside from private rights of way retained for residents of Leckhampton Farm Court. The site is overgrown and the perimeters are heavily vegetated meaning that inter-visibility into and out of the site is very limited. The site includes two areas of remnant orchard with mature Perry trees, the vast majority of which are proposed for retention within landscaped areas of the masterplan.
Wider context
The site locality has been considered appropriate for development growth over recent years as evidenced by the Cheltenham, Gloucester, Tewkesbury Joint Core Strategy (JCS), the Cheltenham Borough Plan and the Tewkesbury Borough Plan. Generally, the area was considered worthy of consideration for strategic development because it is not located within nationally safeguarded designations. These include the Cheltenham / Gloucester Green Belt, which serves as a wedge between Cheltenham and Gloucester and lies to the south of the site and to the west of Brizen View. The site does not lie within the Cotswold Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) which exists beyond to the south of the site and to the east of Cheltenham.
A context plan of the wider area is provided below for your benefit.

A range of uses and protections are incorporated into the plan for the wider area, including a new secondary school at Kidnapper’s Lane and new homes proposed by Miller Homes to the south of Shurdington Road. The community promoted the introduction of Local Green Space (LGS) over Leckhampton Fields to the north-east and east of the site which serves as a protective designation. The Brizen View development and this site lie to the south-west of this area and are not subject to any protective designations. All of the new family homes in the area will help to ensure that local walking journeys can be made to the new secondary school, rather than new homes being built elsewhere resulting in increased car traffic around Cheltenham.
Our proposal

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Summary
The proposal comprises, as follows:
- 42 no. new family homes;
- A mix of 2, 3, 4 and 5 bedroom homes;
- A mix of detached, semi-detached and terraced homes;
- 40% of the homes to be designated as affordable, extending to the 2, 3 and 4 bedroom homes to reflect local need;
- One vehicular access onto Church Road with increased provision for pedestrians on Farm Lane;
- Landscaped areas of public open space;
- New community access to the retained orchard, adjacent to Farm Lane. The land is currently private with no rights of way across it.
Design
Careful consideration has been given to how the site should be designed taking into the account the setting and the relationship with existing homes along Farm Lane including Leckhampton Farm Court, and the existing dwellings along Church Road. An iterative design process has taken place which first considers the opportunities and constraints of the site and evolves the design from there.
The layout follows best design principles, incuding homes comprising attractive architecture laid out in a manner which fronts onto the retained green infrastructure within the site, including the Hatherley Brook corridor and existing trees. The proposal is designed to respond to the local context by virtue of the layout, appearance, low density and retention of green infrastructure. The scheme is designed to establish a strong sense of character and quality homes, with careful consideration to the arrangement of internal roads, spaces, building types and materials to create an attractive, welcoming and distinctive place to live.
Access
A new vehicular junction will be formed onto Church Road only. There will be no vehicular access from Farm Lane. This stretch of Church Road is 30mph zone and is street lit with dedicated footway provision into Leckhampton village and to Brizen View. The existing footway provision on Church Road provides safe linkage to the local public right of way network and numerous local amenities.
The scheme will introduce a footpath connection onto Farm Lane to the south of Leckhampton Farm Court, meaning the orchard area becomes accessible to all. Redrow are also looking to introduce an additional footpath connection on the northern site boundary to allow future connection into the wider local footpath network and exploring whether a footpath connection on the eastern site boundary over the Hatherley Brook is possible, again to connect with the established footpaths on the adjacent land.
Ecology
Detailed site surveys have been undertaken by ecology consultants Tyler Grange. The surveys indicate that the site has no suitable habitat for Great Crested Newts, no presence of badger setts and low levels of bat foraging and commuting. The surveys also determined that 27 of the trees on the site had some potential for bat roosting. The proposal requires the removal of 8 of these trees, all of which have been inspected thoroughly by a licenced professional to confirm that there was no evidence or presence of bat roosting.
The surveys indicated no evidence to suggest dormouse, water voles or otters are using the site. A low population of common lizard was detected. There are two areas within the site which are designated as priority habitats (traditional orchards). Overall, the proposal retains the most important habitats on the site ensure a favourable conservation status for species is maintained and the site can achieve the appropriate levels of biodiversity net gain.
Drainage
The site lies within Flood Risk Zone 1, the Environment Agency’s lowest probability of flood risk. The Hatherley Brook which forms the eastern site boundary is Flood Risk Zone 3. To respect the proximity of this watercourse in flood risk terms, development is offset accordingly. The proposed development offers a beneficial effect to the watercourse by retaining surface water run-off on the site longer than the current existing situation making use of sustainable urban drainage systems (SUDs).
How it could look
The below imagery represents the types of homes we would expect to build in this location. The homes will have a mix of traditional local materials.

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Have Your Say
Redrow appreciate that they are proposing to build in your community, and certainly welcome your input, comments, including how you think the proposal could improve. We would greatly appreciate if you were able to take a small amount of time to fill out the questionnaire below before Sunday 31st January 2021. The results of which will be shared with the local planning authority as part of the Statement of Community Involvement submitted with any planning application.
Next steps
This public consultation and feedback questionnaire will be available to view and fill in until Sunday 31st January 2021. Following this date, Redrow will review all community feedback which will help to evolve the design of the proposal.
The planning application will be finalised ahead of its submission to Cheltenham Borough Council later during 2021. A further opportunity to comment on the proposals will be facilitated through the Council’s statutory consultation on the planning application. Subject to planning permission being granted, it is anticipated that the delivery of new homes would commence on the site from 2022 onwards.
For more information, please contact Conor Flanagan at Black Box Planning at conor.flanagan@blackboxplanning.co.uk.