Scenario 3: Urban Extensions, avoiding the Green Belt

This option would mean seeking to deliver development as urban extensions to the key urban areas of Cheltenham, Gloucester and Tewkesbury Town, but avoiding the Green Belt. This scenario has been identified because the government attaches great importance to Green Belt and the NPPF makes clear that its boundaries should only be altered where exceptional circumstances to do so are fully evidenced and justified through a Local Plan. For this reason, the role of the Green Belt in planning for long-term growth is subject of much national debate.

Given the existing Green Belt is concentrated around Gloucester and Cheltenham, and between Cheltenham and Bishop’s Cleeve, it is appropriate to explore, as part of this consultation, the merits and consequences of a strategy which would support urban extensions to the main urban areas but excluding designated Green Belt land.

The inclusion of this scenario is not to say that Green Belt considerations are of any greater significance than protected areas such as the Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, or Sites of Special Scientific Interest. However, such designations have statutory protection whereas Green Belt land is, as a matter of national policy, designated as a means of managing urban growth, rather than providing environmental protection. This scenario would include land which was previously removed from the Green Belt in the JCS and ‘safeguarded’ to meet longer term needs.

As with all options, this includes the urban capacity of Gloucester and Cheltenham as a starting point.