Cheltenham Borough Local Development Scheme

Introduction

Cheltenham Borough Council has a statutory responsibility to prepare and maintain a Local Plan for its area. This sets the planning vision for the borough and is used to determine planning applications.

The Local Development Scheme (LDS) is the preparation timetable for development plan documents in Cheltenham borough. The latest version was adopted by Cabinet on 18 February 2025.

You can read the contents of the LDS below or download a PDF version of the LDS.

Emerging Development Plan

Cheltenham Borough Council, Gloucester City Council and Tewkesbury Borough Council are now producing a Strategic and Local Plan (SLP). The SLP will provide an overarching planning strategy, shared policies covering all three councils, and local policies covering matters of local importance.

Further information, including how to get involved and sign up for notifications are available on the SLP website.

As set out in the LDS, the estimated timetable for the SLP to adoption (the final stage) is as follows:

Timetable for the review of the Strategic and Local Plan
Milestone
Date
Evidence gathering, plan-preparation and community and stakeholder engagement (Regulation 18)
February 2025 – April 2026
Council approvals for the pre-submission SLP (Regulation 19)
 May – July 2026
Consultation on pre-submission Strategic and Local Plan (Regulation 19)
August - September 2026
Submission to the Secretary of State (Regulation 22)
October – November 2026

Timetable for review with stages subject to Planning Inspector Programme
Milestone Date
Hearings (sometimes referred to as Examination in Public) (Regulation 24) and Major Modifications Consultations (the latter if needed) To be confirmed
Inspector’s final report sent to LPA (Regulation 25) To be confirmed
Adoption (Regulation 26) To be confirmed

Other planning documents

Neighbourhood Development Plans (NDP)

At the time of writing, there are no ‘made’ Neighbourhood Development Plans although a number of Parish Councils or Neighbourhood Forums are actively working towards an NDP. Further information for communities that may wish to develop their own NDP can be found on our neighbourhood plan web pages.