Cheltenham Local Plan Delayed: Now Due by 31 March 2027

Updated 15 November: all three councils have approved the plan for consultation. It runs from 16 November to 4pm on 31 December, with a drop-in at Regent Arcade on 27 November. Dates and how to take part.

Updated 6 November: the dates are now set. Cheltenham’s full council votes on the final draft plan at 6pm on Wednesday 11 November, and Cabinet takes the decision at 1pm on 12 November. The six-week consultation must start by 16 November. What the plan contains.

The plan that will decide where new homes go around Cheltenham for the next 20 years is running late. Its deadline for going to the government has moved from the end of this year to 31 March 2027.

Cheltenham Borough, Gloucester City and Tewkesbury Borough councils are writing the Strategic and Local Plan (SLP) together. They said on Friday 23 October that a “short delay in information being delivered by consultants” meant the plan could not be submitted by the end of 2026, as originally required. After talks with the government, they were told the same day that they can submit it by 31 March 2027. (Cheltenham Borough Council, 23 October 2026)

There is a condition. The final public consultation on the draft plan must be finished by 31 December 2026.

What has changed

The councils’ own published timetable, in Cheltenham’s Local Development Scheme of July 2026, set out these stages. Against each is where things now stand.

The October council votes did not happen. Cheltenham’s full council met on 19 October and the SLP was not on its agenda. (Council, 19 October 2026, agenda)

The councils say the plans for the consultation “remain the same”. Residents, businesses and others will get “the full six-week period that was always planned”.

Alistair Cunningham, chief executive of Tewkesbury Borough Council and the senior officer responsible for the SLP, said the government “has revised the timetable for the submission of local plans”. He said the new timetable “will ensure all required information is available when the SLP is published”.

Why it matters

The SLP will replace the Joint Core Strategy and the Cheltenham Plan. It sets out where homes, jobs and infrastructure go across the three council areas over the next 20 years, and it is the document that allocates the sites. It is the stage at which sites such as the Green Belt fields north of Swindon Lane, which residents asked councillors in September not to treat as settled, are either written into the plan or left out.

Until it is adopted, the existing plans still decide planning applications. The council says only limited weight can be given to the new plan while it is in preparation. Our Cheltenham planning news page tracks what that means for the big sites now.

What it means for you

• The consultation has not opened yet. If you want to comment on which sites are in the plan, nothing is lost: the full six weeks still apply.
• It has to open by 19 November at the latest. A six-week consultation that must end by 31 December cannot start any later than that. Expect it to open in November.
• Watch for the council meeting. Cheltenham’s calendar lists a full council meeting at 6pm on Wednesday 11 November, with the agenda due the week before. The councils have not said whether that is the SLP meeting, and say the dates will be confirmed this week.
• Sign up for the plan’s own alerts on the Strategic and Local Plan website, which carries the consultation documents when they are published. (Cheltenham Borough Council meetings calendar)

This is the consultation that counts most. It is the last formal chance to comment before an independent planning inspector examines the plan.

We will add the meeting dates and the consultation opening date here as soon as the councils publish them.