Cheltenham council housing offices at Hesters Way and Oakley close on 23 September. Nine weekly drop-in sessions start 5 October, leaving a 12-day gap.
Cheltenham council housing services will stop staffing the Hesters Way and Oakley offices from Wednesday 23 September. The intercoms at both close the same day, and the post boxes there move to the Municipal Offices on the Promenade.
The replacement is a timetable of nine weekly drop-in sessions across the borough. Those do not start until Monday 5 October. Between the two dates there is a gap of twelve days in which neither the old offices nor the new sessions are available in Hesters Way or Oakley.
The council is writing to every tenant and leaseholder this week. (Cheltenham Borough Council)
The new drop-in timetable
The council says the sessions are a response to what tenants asked for. “Tenants have told us that they would like it to be easier to speak to us face to face,” its notice says. Staff at the sessions can deal with general enquiries about a tenancy or any council housing service.
| Day | Where | Time |
|---|---|---|
| Monday | Employment and training room, Hesters Way Community Resource Centre, Cassin Drive, GL51 7SU | 10am to 2pm |
| Tuesday | Housing support office, Barlow Road, GL51 0BQ | 10am to 12 noon |
| Tuesday | Digi Den, Oakley Community Resource Centre, 113a Clyde Crescent | 2pm to 4pm |
| Wednesday | Housing support office, Popes Close, Swindon Road, GL50 4BQ | 10am to 12 noon |
| Wednesday | Housing support office, Wallace House, Windermere Road, Up Hatherley, GL51 3PF | 2pm to 4pm |
| Thursday | Housing support office, Lynworth Court, Mendip Road, Lynworth, GL52 5DZ | 10am to 12 noon |
| Thursday | Digi Den, Oakley Community Resource Centre, 113a Clyde Crescent | 2pm to 4pm |
| Friday | Housing support office, Gilbert Ward Court, Croft Road, Charlton Kings, GL53 8LA | 10am to 12 noon |
| Friday | St Paul's Community Hub, St Paul's Walk, GL50 4HG | 2pm to 4pm |
Check the Oakley postcode before you travel. The council’s timetable gives the Oakley Community Resource Centre on Clyde Crescent as GL50 4BQ. That postcode is in St Paul’s, a mile and a quarter away, and it is the same one the table gives for the Popes Close office on Swindon Road. The council’s own community hubs page puts the Oakley resource centre at Clyde Crescent, GL52 5QL. We have used the street name rather than either postcode in the table above.
What actually closes on 23 September
Three things go at the Hesters Way and Oakley offices:
- staff will no longer be permanently based at either
- the intercom facilities at both close
- the post boxes at both move to the Municipal Offices
Keys, forms, letters and other correspondence go to the Municipal Offices instead. Reception takes them from 9am to 5pm on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, and from 10am to 5pm on Wednesdays. Outside those hours there are secure post boxes at the front and back doors.
The phone line, 0800 408 0000, is unchanged, and the contact centre is open 8am to 5pm.
The satisfaction figures behind this
Cheltenham Borough Council owns 4,656 properties. Its most recent tenant satisfaction measures, covering 2025 to 2026, come from 942 telephone surveys carried out by the research agency Acuity between 29 April 2025 and 2 February 2026, which gives a margin of error of plus or minus 2.9%.
The results are solid on the fabric of the housing and weaker on being heard:
- 86.7% agreed the council treats them fairly and with respect
- 83.2% were satisfied that it keeps them informed about things that matter
- 81.5% were satisfied with the overall service from their landlord
- 69.5% were satisfied that it listens to tenant views and acts on them
- 63.4% were satisfied with its approach to anti-social behaviour
- 46.0% of those who had complained in the past year were satisfied with how the complaint was handled
The 69.5% figure is the one the drop-in sessions are aimed at. It also means roughly three in ten tenants did not feel listened to, at the point the council withdraws its permanent staffed presence from Hesters Way and Oakley.
Two sessions on the tenant survey results
The council is also running two information sessions on its future plans and the survey results:
- Friday 9 October, 2pm, Oakley Community Resource Centre, in person
- Tuesday 13 October, 6pm, online webinar
Registration is through the council’s online form or on 0800 408 0000. Anyone who cannot attend the webinar can ask for a recording and transcript on the same number.
What it means for you
- If you use the Hesters Way or Oakley office, do anything you need to do there before Wednesday 23 September, or plan for the phone line until 5 October.
- If you are dropping off keys or forms, they now go to the Municipal Offices on the Promenade, in person during opening hours or into the secure boxes at the front and back doors at any time.
- If you want a face-to-face conversation, the Monday session at Hesters Way is the longest in the week, at four hours. Every other session is two hours.
- If your estate is not on the list, the nearest sessions are at Barlow Road, Popes Close, Wallace House, Lynworth Court, Gilbert Ward Court and St Paul’s Walk, and there is at least one session on every weekday.
- If you want to put a view to the council on the wider plans, the 9 and 13 October sessions are the moment, not the drop-ins.
For council services generally, see our Cheltenham bin collection days and Cheltenham council tax bands pages.
Sources
- Cheltenham Borough Council, New drop-in sessions and office location changes for tenants, for the full timetable, the 23 September office changes, the Municipal Offices arrangements and the two October information sessions.
- Cheltenham Borough Council, Community hubs, for the Oakley resource centre address and postcode.
- Cheltenham Borough Council, Tenant satisfaction measures 2025-26, for every satisfaction percentage quoted here.
- Cheltenham Borough Council, Tenant satisfaction measures summary of approach 2025-26, for the 4,656 properties, the 942 surveys, the fieldwork dates and the 2.9% margin of error.
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