Mayor of Cheltenham. Lib Dem county councillor for Leckhampton & Warden Hill, borough councillor for Leckhampton & parish councillor for Leckhampton Undercliff. Former Cheltenham MP & former MEP
Last Thursday you re-elected my brilliant teammate on the borough council, Julia Chandler, as the second borough councillor for Leckhampton. Julia topped the poll with 1,274 votes. The Conservatives were second, Reform UK third and the Green Party fourth.
Across Cheltenham, the Lib Dems won 18 out of the 21 seats up for election on the night – 17 on the borough council and one county council by-election.
And in Leckhampton you also voted overwhelmingly to adopt the local Neighbourhood Plan.
Thank you so much for this fantastic vote of confidence.
Julia and I promise to keep working for Leckhampton, working to defend and enhance the local environment, speak up for Leckhampton in local council chambers and take up cases when you need us to. We’ll keep attending the Leckhampton Community Café at the DugOut Café in Burrow’s Field every third Saturday of the month from 10 til 1200. And we’ll keep putting out our regular FOCUS newsletters all year round to keep you informed about the decisions being taken about your community. FOCUS is paid for and delivered entirely by Lib Dem volunteers so if you’d like to help, we’d really appreciate it. Click here to help us!
Thursday 7 May is polling day in Leckhampton and you have TWO votes this time!!
One vote is for one of Leckhampton’s two borough council seats and popular sitting Lib Dem councillor Julia Chandler is the best placed candidate to beat Nigel Farage’s Reform Party here. Julia lives locally and is a hardworking former community midwife for Leckhampton. She has represented Leckhampton alongside me since 2024 and I couldn’t wish for a better teammate on the council.
Leckhampton has traditionally always been a close race between the Conservatives and Lib Dems, with one recent election being decided by just 13 votes! But last May Nigel Farage’s Reform Party overtook the Green Party to come third in Leckhampton & Warden Hill and became the main opposition party to the Lib Dems across Gloucestershire. So the chances are this will be a close contest between the Lib Dems and Reform.
Your second vote is for Leckhampton’s Neighbourhood Plan. Please vote YES! This is the culmination of many years’ work and local consultation by parish councillors and will influence planning decisions taken by the borough council and other planning decision-makers. It adds some protection to more local green spaces, community facilities and local heritage and sets out the preferred cycling and walking routes we want to see improved. And adopting it will even bring a higher rate of developer contribution too so that will mean more money for local projects.
The polls are open from 7am until 10pm and you now must take a Photo ID to vote. The location of your polling station is on the official poll card you’ve received from the council – please check as some Leckhampton polling stations have changed in recent years. Phone us on 01242 224889 if you want to double-check where to vote or need a lift to the polling station. You don’t have to take the poll card to vote but it’s helpful for council officers if you do. If you’ve had a postal vote but haven’t posted it, it’s too late to post but you can seal it in the envelopes according to the instructions but take it to any polling station or the Municipal Offices in the Promenade.
We’re expecting the result on Friday. Good luck Julia!
Ministers tell us we must merge all seven of Gloucestershire’s councils into either one or two ‘unitary councils’ carrying out everything from parks and planning permission to libraries and adult social care. See more on the detail of this merger and the two other proposals (at regional and parish level) currently being considered for local government in my earlier blog here.
The reorganisation of principal councils means that Cheltenham Borough Council will be swallowed up after 150 years of local democracy, along with all the other five district councils in Gloucestershire.
That’s worrying.
How far from Cheltenham’s regency town centre or Tewkesbury’s medieval heart will decisions on planning permission be taken? What price the support Cheltenham gives to Cheltenham Festivals, the Everyman Theatre or the Cheltenham Trust that runs the Pump Room and Town Hall once Cheltenham is subsumed inside a much larger council?
At least Government is asking our view on whether one giant super-council covering the entire county is better than two smaller unitary councils. Find their consultation and respond here.
I want a smaller council for our area because I strongly believe that small is not just beautiful but usually more accountable, responsive and efficient so my strong preference is for two smaller unitaries.
Any one community will automatically have a louder voice in a smaller local authority.
Two unitary councils instead of one would be more responsive and less bureaucratic.
It’s the same pattern we see in business. Small companies are more agile, more creative and adapt faster. Grow too big and that edge soon wears off.
And if we do get two unitary councils, I’m definitely for the straightforward east/west merger of districts and county responsibilties not the proposal for a ‘Greater Gloucester’ combined with a ‘Doughnut’ containing everywhere else in Gloucestershire, including Cheltenham. I can see that would work well for Gloucester but it would leave the rest of us in the worst of all worlds – a council with fewere resources but still stretched across pretty much the whole county and almost as remote as a single super-council.
Some people worry that the two unitary model would “split” Gloucestershire.
Well, we’d all still be Gloucestershire. Just like Bath is still in Somerset and Swindon is still in Wiltshire.
But that smaller model has happened almost everywhere else that has gone down the unitary road before us. Berkshire, Shropshire, Cheshire, Bedfordshire, Northamptonshire, Wiltshire, Dorset, Buckinghamshire, Cumbria, North Yorkshire and most recently Somerset – all now represented by at least two unitaries. If Bath and Swindon weren’t subsumed into giant countywide councils, why us?
I’m sure all those other counties agonised over dividing county services too.
But in their Ofsted and Care Quality Commission ratings, you find just the same variety as in any other set of councils with many achieving real excellence. Children’s services in York and in North Yorkshire – outstanding. Adult social care in Milton Keynes – outstanding. Children’s services in Telford – outstanding. And in Wiltshire outside of Swindon – outstanding.
Bigger really isn’t always better. Just look at the state of our roads – organised over many years on a countywide basis. The county’s children’s services have struggled in past years too and it has taken a huge effort to get them back up to scratch. Compared that with the consistently well run services by our local borough council, including our parks and gardens and our recycling collection.
Even the financial data shows east and west would be practically equal – an estimated variation of only £20m on combined budgets of £850m or just 2%. The latest government funding formula strongly favours less well-off councils anyway so any inequality is likely to be quickly ironed out.
EF Schumacher wrote back in 1974 that “we are generally told that gigantic organisations are inescapably necessary” but that amongst real people “there is a tremendous longing and striving to profit, if at all possible, from the convenience, humanity and manageability of smallness.”
I agree and I’d urge everyone to respond to the consultation and back two smaller councils not one giant super-council.
Labour ministers, clearly short of things to do, have launched one of the biggest ever shake-ups of English local government. Cheltenham Borough Council and Gloucestershire County Council could both be abolished, we could have a new executive super-mayor like Sadiq Khan or Andy Burnham covering an area as far afield as Bristol and it could even mean changes at parish level too. Our MP Max Wilkinson and I are worried this could mean decisions that affect us in Leckhampton being taken much further from our community by councillors who have no real local knowledge. But ultimately it looks like it will be ministers in Whitehall who decide. I’ve explained the changes in more detail here.
I have always tried hard to make sure councils offer adequate provision for traveller communities and to be sympathetic to their chosen lifestyle. But it doesn’t help when travellers break into and camp on public spaces that are maintained at community expense causing criminal damage and when local people – including a local nursery for pre-school children – experience anti-social, threatening and low level criminal behaviour from these visitors.
This has now happened for the second time in recent weeks at Burrow’s sports field in Leckhampton, a council owned sports field managed by Leckhampton Rovers FC. On both occasions Cheltenham Borough Council officers moved swiftly to serve notices to move on and get court orders to enforce this if necessary. They also engaged on both child and animal welfare issues. On both occasions the travellers moved on in a few days and before the court dates. The earlier court order preventing return is understood to have applied to different individuals so could not be used by the police immediately this time which is frustrating but officers have to observe the law. I’m again grateful to council officers for moving as fast as possible but a couple of issues remain:
If Burrow’s is now known to be a vulnerable site then we clearly need more robust physical barriers in place quickly that can’t be broken into simply with a pair of boltcutters. I have raised this with council officers and will work to get this in place fast and secure the required funding. Leckhampton Rovers FC manage the sports fields and have already made some very helpful suggestions about possible options.
This time the police response, particularly in relation to more threatening anti-social behaviour in and around a children’s pre-school nursery and playground, does not seem to me to have been adequate. I have invited Gloucestershire Constabulary’s superintendent for Cheltenham to meet local people soon, even though the travellers have now moved on. I have also suggested the lead public protection officer for the council could attend too.
I have also asked if car registration details and cctv could not be used to bring charges for criminal damage or behaviour against individuals, or recover costs for repairs and clean up from them. This kind of behaviour should not simply be allowed to take place with impunity.
The Daisybank Community Interest Company has now been successfully formed to bid for and (we hope) buy the much-loved Daisybank Field immediately above Pilford Road in Leckhampton. This is an essential step on the way to saving this approach to Leckhampton Hill for the community in general and walkers, children and winter sledgers in particular.
We’re grateful to Cheltenham Borough Council and Leckhampton with Warden Hill Parish Council for their support in securing asset of community value status for the field and then facilitating the six month moratorium on private sale that will enable the CIC to bid for the land. And we’re grateful to the Financial Conduct Authority for allowing us to use a title including the word ‘bank’!
There is an update page on this website here and the CIC itself is looking to set up a website shortly.
On Thursday 1 May, local people elected me as your new county councillor for the Leckhampton and Warden Hill Division. Thank you to everyone who voted for me. I will strive to represent everyone locally regardless of who you voted for.
I’d like to thank my predecessor Emma Nelson for her service to the area. Although we are from different parties and obviously took a different view of the county council’s past record, I recognise the affection in which Emma is held locally and her hard work on our behalf. I’m pleased that in these divisive times we both fought respectful election campaigns.
Although local government reorganisation looms over the county council as it does over other local councils, at the moment Gloucestershire County Council takes the lion’s share of our council tax and is responsible for major budgets like transport, roads and pavements, adult social care and children’s services as well as many other smaller but important services like waste disposal and libraries. It is very likely that with 27 out of 55 seats across the county the Liberal Democrats will now form the county administration and we take seriously our pledges to address many of the issues raised during the election campaign. These include the quality of our roads and pavements, the need to improve children’s services, commit the county ever more clearly to environmental sustainability and tackle waste.
Martin with Warden Hill Lib Dem borough councillors Tony and Graham
This Thursday 1 May, from 7am to 10pm, the polls are open in the county council election (find your polling station on the polling card you’ve been sent or online here and remember you now need a Photo ID to vote. It’s helpful to take the polling card but this doesn’t count as ID).
Here are three positive reasons I hope you’ll vote for me as your Lib Dem county councillor in Leckhampton & Warden Hill:
I grew up here and I’ve known Leckhampton & Warden Hill all my life. My local shops growing up were in Salisbury Avenue. My favourite walks were through Leckhampton’s green fields. This area has always mattered to me. As your MP and then as a local councillor I have argued successfully for more affordable and climate-friendly housing alongside the protection of our most precious green spaces, I’ve worked hard on local issues from anti-social behaviour to air quality to safer routes to school.
We need better roads and pavements. Most of the complaints I get as a councillor are actually about county council responsibilities like our roads and pavements. 20 years of Conservative administration at Shire Hall has left them in a state that looks terrible, damages cars and is downright dangerous for cyclists and pedestrians. We need change.
I’ll always back nature-friendly solutions. Other parties call themselves green but I’ve actually delivered a clean air plan for Cheltenham, won funding and developer commitments for renewable energy and moved the motion on Cheltenham Borough Council that declared a nature emergency, committing the council to nature recovery, future protection of local green spaces and natural flood risk management such as uphill planting – particularly important to low-lying areas of Warden Hill.
Martin is currently working with local residents to protect Daisy Bank for future generations. The lower field has been put up for sale by its owners
And I’ll always keep in touch all year round with Focus just as I do in Leckhampton already and Tony and Graham do in Warden Hill.
The future of our councils
In this election, you’ll also hear about councils merging or being “split in half”. Here’s what’s going on:
Labour ministers have launched a top-down reorganisation of local government in England. They want more regional authorities headed by elected mayors like London’s and Manchester’s that can take some government powers and spending down to a regional level. Here the most likely ‘strategic authority’ is a West of England authority combining Bristol, Bath and parts of Somerset and all of historic Gloucestershire including Cheltenham, Gloucester, Stroud, Cirencester, the Forest of Dean and South Gloucestershire.
So far so good. But ministers also said they only want one tier of ‘principal council’ below these regional mayoral authorities and we currently have two:
A county council that runs major services like social care, roads and transport and education (Gloucestershire County Council)
District councils that run more local services like planning permission, recycling collection, parks and gardens and arts and culture (Cheltenham and five other districts Gloucester, Tewkesbury, Forest of Dean, Cotswold and Stroud).
So we’ll have to choose what kind of one ‘unitary council’ we want here. The Conservatives want to absorb all seven districts into one giant super-county-council. So even local planning decisions about Leckhampton and Warden Hill, about Cheltenham’s Municipal Offices and Cav and our local green spaces could be taken by councillors with no connection to Cheltenham at all. Our festivals and art gallery and Pump Room and our grants to the Everyman and local good causes would be lumped in with budgets covering Gloucester and the Forest too.
Do we really want the authority that’s been running our roads and pavements running everything? The authority that has messed up the paving on the Prom, whose children’s services were judged ‘inadequate’ and whose transport team thought the Shurdington Road could cope with even more traffic?
Lib Dems don’t. We don’t believe bigger is always better. We want the new councils to have a more local connection, merging three districts each to form a Cheltenham & the Cotswolds council in the east and a Gloucester, Forest & Stroud Valleys council in the west. That will retain at least some of the local links we value so much in our elected decision-makers.
Whatever the pattern of new local councils that emerges from all this, it’s important to have a strong voice speaking up for Leckhampton and for Warden Hill. That’s why I’d be very grateful for your support on 1 May. The polls will be open from 7am to 10pm. It’s helpful to take your official poll card and essential to take PhotoID such as a driver’s licence or passport. Call 01242 262626 and ask for ‘election services’ if you haven’t received a poll card or if you want a postal or proxy vote.
Many local people were alarmed by the appearance of for sale signs on the much loved piece of green space between Pilford Road and Daisybank Road. Daisybank is a safe play area for children, popular with walkers and their pets, an important and beautiful access route to the hill for walkers and cyclists, and one of Cheltenham’s best sledging sites in snowy weather!
Martin gathered evidence of community support and persuaded Cheltenham Borough Council to declare the site an asset of community value which allows six months for the community to mount a bid. A campaign webpage with the latest news can be found here.
Julia Chandler and Martin Horwood are Leckhampton’s two borough councillors now
Julia and Martin elected in Leckhampton
Lib Dems top the poll across Cheltenham
Lib Dems overtake Conservatives as the second party of local government across England
Julia Chandler has been elected as the second Lib Dem borough councillor for Leckhampton. I was also re-elected and we’d both like to say a huge thank you to everyone who supported us and to everyone else who took part in the election. We’ll do our absolute best to represent you all.
This is the first time both Leckhampton seats have been held by Liberal Democrats. Julia’s win was one of five gains by Lib Dems from the Conservatives across Cheltenham, leaving the Conservative Party with no councillors and the Lib Dems with 36. The Green Party also one won seat from the Conservatives, and Lib Dems and Green Party won and lost one seat each to the other, making the Green Party the official opposition with three seats. The last seat on the council was held by the local party People Against Bureaucracy.
Lib Dem parliamentary candidate Max Wilkinson welcomed the results which make him the hot bet to replace Tory minister Alex Chalk as Cheltenham MP when the Conservatives call the general election. Mr Chalk has voted consistently as instructed by Conservative whips in parliament – 900 times in a row in this parliament! – supporting Boris Johnson on key Brexit, sewage and sleaze votes, Suella Braverman on the Rwanda deportation policy and more recently Rishi Sunak on his reversal of key environmental policies.*
Max is the hot tip to be the next MP for Cheltenham
Across England, the Lib Dems gained over a hundred local government seats, overtaking the Conservatives as the second party of local government.
You can look at Alex Chalk MP’s full voting record on the independent website Public Whip here. The sleaze vote was cast on 3 November 2021 when Alex Chalk voted to support Boris Johnson when he tried to park a parliamentary standards report and save disgraced Tory MP Owen Patterson who had committed an “egregious” breach of lobbying rules while earning £100,000 from private firms. He loyally backed Boris again in the key vote on sewage on 20 October 2021, defeating an amendment that would have curtailed sewage dumping by water companies.
Julia Chandler and myself are the local candidates in Leckhampton
Ex-Super Martin Surl is the candidate for Police & Crime Commissioner
Don’t forget to take Photo ID this time!
Julia and I are standing in the double-header local election here on Thursday 2 May. It’s expected to be another close race between the Lib Dems and the Conservative candidates. No other party has ever won in Leckhampton.
Like me, Julia lives in Leckhampton and has a strong track record of working for local people.
She worked in Cheltenham as a community midwife and campaigned tirelessly for local NHS services with the Royal College of Midwives. She’ll be an expert voice on the council at a time when local health services face unprecedented pressure.
I’ve already been your councillor for six years, winning funds for renewables, bringing in air quality and nature recovery policies at borough level, championing Leckhampton’s green spaces and insisting that when new development does take place, it should be low carbon with a decent proportion of affordable homes.
Julia and I both live locally and use local facilities so we understand local issues and know what’s going on in our community. Pictured here (with best friends Harley & Nancy) at Burrow’s Field.
Julia and I will fight for new projects like the scout hut rebuild and keep campaigning for safer walking and cycling routes like a new zebra crossing on Church Road. And we’ll keep nagging Conservative-run Shire Hall for better roads and pavements.
And we’ll keep in touch all year round not just at election time!
You’ll have another vote on Thursday too – for Gloucestershire’s Police & Crime Commissioner. The Lib Dem candidate is Martin Surl who recently visited Leckhampton with Julia and myself. Leckhampton’s crime rate is well below average but we all know it happens and Martin’s slogan is ‘Every Crime Matters’. As a former superintendent and the former independent Police & Crime Commissioner, Martin knows what he’s talking about: “The last decade has been tough for policing with budgets and officers and staff cut right to the bone. But during my time in office, we were always praised for financial stability. In the last few years that has been put at risk. Under my watch I pledge to make sure our police concentrate on the primary focus of keeping us safe – by making sure every crime matters because every victim matters.” Martin has already got up to speed with the recent increase in anti-social behaviour incidents at Burrow’s Field, the most serious of which resulted in the death of a much-loved little dog.
The polls are open from 7am until 10pm and this time you will need Photo ID to vote. To check where to vote and what Photo ID you can take go to https://www.cheltenham.gov.uk/elections2024
Conservative ministers finally ruled in February that Miller Homes can build 350 new homes on the large greenfield site next to the Shurdington Road. The decision was taken by Dorset Tory MP & junior minister Simon Hoare on behalf of Michael Gove. The scheme was initially rejected by Cheltenham because it didn’t provide enough green energy. Miller later conceded EV charging points, solar panels and air source heat pumps throughout.
At the appeal hearing last summer, I argued that the sheer number of houses should be reduced given how many are already being built in Leckhampton. This would also have eased likely traffic pressure and preserved more green space.
But ministers were persuaded by the highways authority, Conservative-run Gloucestershire County Council, that there would “not be an unacceptable impact on highway safety or a severe impact on congestion” -a conclusion which was greeted with disbelief locally.
The county said improvements to the Moorend Park Road junction would help but couldn’t explain how or when they would happen. The planning inspector advising ministers said “nothing substantive was forthcoming at the hearing” but somehow accepted plans were “in hand”. Ministers agreed.
Renewable energy and EV charging points throughout.
A cycle route through the estate will connect the High School to Merlin Way and Moorend beyond, avoiding the Shurdington Road.
Miller promise to preserve and open up the line of Hatherley Brook and protect many trees and hedgerows, claiming a 14% net gain in biodiversity, above national targets.
It does mean 350 new homes and thanks to Lib Dem-led Cheltenham’s tough local policy, 40% will be affordable. The scheme also respects the boundary of the designated Local Green Space (see map ). And Max Wilkinson and I and the Lib Dem council did win a series of environmental concessions:
350 houses will now be built next to the Shurdington Road but the protected Local Green Space is intact following the refusal of another planning bid next to Leckhampton Farm Court
You may wonder how Conservative ministers in London end up taking such important local decisions. The answer is that we have a ridiculously centralised planning system in the UK.
In better news, a smaller developer’s bid to build on the protected Local Green Space was rejected by Cheltenham Borough Council. Cheltenham designated 26 hectares of the Leckhampton Fields as protected Local Green Space in 2020, alongside planning for new homes like the Miller development. After logging more than 30 local objections, the council rejected the planning application for six houses next to Leckhampton Farm Court, citing the Local Green Space policy. Had this application been allowed it might have put all the remaining Local Green Space at risk. The landowner can still appeal and Redrow managed to win permission at appeal for 30 new houses on a nearby orchard site last year but this latest site has the much stronger LGS protection in place so the developer’s chance of a successful appeal is very slim indeed.
I’d like to wish everyone in Leckhampton a very Merry Christmas and a Happy and Peaceful New Year. If you’re celebrating Hannukah or any other festival at this time of year, best wishes to you too!
You can take part in our 2023 FOCUS Holiday Quiz by following this link.
And here are a few charities local to Leckhampton you might want to think about supporting at this generous time of year if you have a little to spare:
Sue Ryder Carerun wonderful hospice and palliative care at Leckhampton Court. Call 01242 246285 or email them at leckhampton.fundraising@sueryder.org to donate or see how you can fundraise for them.
ITSA Digital Trust in Mead Road (opposite Travis Perkins) recycles old IT kit for African schools and tackles digital exclusion at home. Call in with donated IT equipment or donate via the website.
Gloucestershire Wildlife Trustrun Crickley Hill nature reserve and fight for wildlife and nature recovery all over the county. You can donate at Crickley Hill or via the website, where there’s also an online shop.
Leckhampton Village Hall They already run a successful & much-loved community venue but Leckhampton Village Hall volunteers are on a mission to raise £5000 to help get their project going to build new cloakrooms, provide better disabled access, convert the existing cloakrooms into storage and changing rooms and modernise the hall’s kitchen. You can help by buying a brick for £25 on their JustGiving page – use the QR code or go to https://bit.ly/LVHbrick.
The Leckhampton Road store is going to move to the corner of Pilley Lane a little further up the Leckhampton Road – the former John Wilkins garage site. This follows a unanimous vote by Cheltenham’s planning committee. Most local people have welcomed the idea of the move.
Martin spoke at the meeting and explained the concerns that nearby residents had about the design and sheer scale of the planned three-storey building. It’s not ideal but on balance Martin backed the plan which also incorporates 14 new homes. There was no guarantee that if the plan was rejected the Co-Op move would have happened at all and something even less appropriate might then have been proposed.
On the positive side:
This means the Co-Op can leave its present site which is plagued by pavement parking and awkward shared access next to a busy roundabout. The new plan separates customer parking, pedestrian access and a loading bay for deliveries.
The 14 new homes -2 semi-detached houses and 12 flats – will include some of the most affordable in the area and better use of brownfield sites for housing always helps us to make the case for the defence of our green fields
The switch from a barren garage site to one with planting on two sides will actually represent a significant increase in biodiversity. And none of the new homes will be connected to the gas grid – they’ll all benefit from solar panels and air source heat pumps.
The new buildings will be further from neighbouring properties than the current garage buildings – because they’ll be separated by the residents’ and customer car park.
Martin demands change to whole planning system to restore local decision-making and properly value ecology
An unelected government inspector has decided that Redrow Homes can build 30 more houses in Leckhampton on top of the 377 they are already building, on a site of containing two nationally protected ancient orchards and right in front of iconic views from the AONB at Leckhampton Hill. The site is at the corner of Farm Lane and Church Road, opposite the Crippetts.
Incredibly the inspector’s report acknowledges that the development will harm a valued landscape and break multiple planning policies but then concludes it should still go ahead. The rationale is the shortfall in Cheltenham’s five-year supply of housing despite the fact that Redrow themselves are already building 377 homes next door, Kendrick and Newland Homes have been given permission for more than 30 more nearby and the agreed local plan anticipates a further 350 next to the Shurdington Road.
The Redrow scheme was opposed by the parish and borough councils, the AONB Management Board and hundreds of local residents and rejected by Cheltenham planners but taken to appeal by the developer.
Martin said “This decision represents everything that is wrong with our planning system. An unelected inspector has overturned not only local wishes but local policy at every level from the Cheltenham, Gloucester and Tewkesbury Joint Core Strategy to the Neighbourhood Plan. This is a hugely important site ecologically with two nationally protected orchards in a recognised valued landscape and multiple designations by our Local Nature Partnership. The inspector acknowledged all this, agreed that the development will harm the landscape and that it breaks local policy but has given permission anyway.”
“The inspector says the need for houses trumps everything but Leckhampton is already looking at the best part of a thousand new homes – more than anywhere else in Cheltenham and including hundreds of affordable homes. We’re doing more than anyone to meet housing need but that seems to count for nothing.”
The housing land supply shortage in Cheltenham is largely because of the failure of developers and transport planners to bring forward large promised developments west and north-west of Cheltenham, heavily influenced by factors outside of local councillors’ control like the pandemic and the delayed delivery of improvements to Junction 10 of the M5.
Martin added: “We need to urgently change planning law to restore local decision-making to its proper place, properly value ecology and biodiversity and stop using impossible housing land supply targets to ride roughshod over local plans and the environment.”
Key ponts from the inspector’s report:
Para 6: the inspector acknowledges that the development would be contrary to local spatial strategy (the Cheltenham, Gloucester and Tewkesbury Joint Core Strategy) and national planning guidance
Para 16: The inspector accepts that the site forms part of a ‘valued landscape’ – an important protection in national planning guidance.
Para 19: The inspector acknowledges that the development would harm the character and appearance of the countryside
Para 29: The inspector concludes the development would not harm the landscape and setting of the nearby Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB)
Paras 32-34 The inspector acknowledges the recognised ecological importance of the site in law and local policy
Para 44 The inspector concludes the impact on biodiversity is ‘not unacceptable’
Para 60 The inspector concludes that the ‘pressing and urgent’ need for housing trumps the valued landscape, applying the so-called ’tilted balance’
Para 63 The inspector acknowledges that Leckhampton is already seeing a great deal of new housing but dismisses this as a reason to reject the permission
Local Lib Dems were quick off the mark campaigning to save our bus service. Martin with Warden Hill councillor Graham Beale and Lib Dem parliamentary candidate for Cheltenham, Max Wilkinson, widely tipped to be Cheltenham’s next MP. Photo by Anna Lythgoe.
Last autumn local people were horrified to hear that Leckhampton’s regular regular local bus service – the F bus – was soon to be lost. Its operator Marchants, who had struggled for some time to deliver a reliable service, notified Conservative county transport bosses on 17 August that they were pulling out. But Shire Hall were caught asleep at the wheel and didn’t begin ‘formal market engagement’ on a new service until 14 October blaming Stagecoach for the delay.
Lib Dem parliamentary candidate Max Wilkinson, widely tipped to be Cheltenham’s next MP, was quick off the mark supporting Martin and other Lib Dem councillors in their campaigns to save services as soon as the news became public in October. In the end the county subsidised Marchants to run an ’emergency’ replacement L bus service just in time. It is only 16 buses a day not 24. The L bus route is shown below.
The new replacement L bus service will last at least until November 2023 and for now it’s free. But enjoy that while it lasts: fares will be back soon.
It was unclear then how long this would last, especially as no fares are being charged so far, and whether the weekend F bus, scheduled to end this month, would also be replaced. Now Shire Hall have confirmed to Martin that a weekend service with “similar coverage” to the L bus will replace the F and that the contract with Marchants runs at least until November 2023.
Sadly, the freebies are coming to an end though with fares coming as soon as the proper equipment can be fitted to Marchant’s buses.
Martin said ‘This is good news for now and we have time to campaign for a permanent reliable local service now.’
‘In the face of climate change, growing awareness of air pollution and rising fuel costs we should be doing everything possible to encourage and grow public transport. But Conservative leaders at Shire Hall seem to be lurching trom crisis to crisis and presiding over reduced services instead.’
The news that Nigel Jones, Lord Jones of Cheltenham, died last week was terribly sad for Nigel’s family and for Cheltenham.
Nigel always told me he wanted to be ‘Mr Cheltenham’ and he was just that. When I was out knocking on doors in my campaigns I lost count of the number of people who seemed to know Nigel and had been helped by him. As his successor, I was very aware I had big boots to fill but he was always approachable, kind and supportive to me.
He won an historic victory in 1992 built on many years of determined campaigning. As MP he took a high profile when championing trade union rights at GCHQ and defending local health services. But he was effective behind the scenes too, lobbying successfully to keep GCHQ in Cheltenham when that seemed to be in doubt and constantly networking quietly and effectively. He held a bewildering array of spokespersonships for the party in parliament using his IT background to particularly good effect. He’d earned the right to put his feet up when he stood down undefeated from the Commons in 2005 but he went on to be an equally effective member of the House of Lords too. We’ll all miss his gentle manner and witty banter.
My thoughts are with Katy, Amy, Lucy and Sam and the whole family at what must be such a difficult time for them.
You can read my profile of Nigel on the section of this website devoted to Cheltenham’s past MPs here.
Thank you to everyone in Leckhampton who voted in yesterday’s local election. Thank you for putting me top of the poll here again and putting your trust in me to represent you as your borough councillor for another term. Leckhampton was just one of 18 Lib Dem wins across Cheltenham while the party celebrated more than 190 council seat gains across England.
Parliamentary candidate Max Wilkinson leads the Lib Dem celebration. These results mean he has a great chance of being Cheltenham’s next MP.
My majority over the Conservatives was just 13 votes four years ago but did increase a bit this time! After an unusually aggressive anti-Lib Dem campaign, the Green Party came third with a reduced vote compared to last year’s election.
During the campaign I promised to keep working for a fairer, greener, safer Leckhampton and I’m determined to do just that.
Today, Thursday 5 May, expect another close race in Leckhampton between the Conservatives and local Lib Dem councillor Martin Horwood. The last time this seat was contested in 2018, Martin was just 13 votes ahead of the Conservatives so every vote here really counts! Greens and Labour have always come third or fourth here.
Since his election in 2018, Martin has worked tirelessly for:
A fairer Leckhampton with more affordable housing including 40% of any new private development and new council housing for rent across town. These will now include our first zero carbon council and private homes with lower fuel bills built in. And Martin has argued for a local catchment for our new secondary school so local kids stop missing out.
Martin’s the greenest candidate in this election, not just complaining about climate change but actually delivering results: successfully pushing developers to build more zero carbon homes and winning funds for renewable energy at Burrow’s.
A greener Leckhampton with record recycling, more renewable energy, a plan to get Cheltenham to net zero by 2030 and 26 hectares of our Local Green Space here finally protected by the Lib Dem Local Plan after decades of campaigning. Martin won funds for renewable energy at Burrow’s Field and has successfully pushed developers to bring forward more zero carbon homes – and opposed it when they didn’t. It’s easy to call yourself ‘Green’. Martin actually delivers!
Martin always keeps in touch – not just at election time!
A safer Leckhampton. Martin has repeatedly lobbied the Conservative County Council highways authority to do more on dangerous pavement and corner parking and to provide safer roads, walking and cycling routes – especially once the new school opens.
So vote wisely on 5 May. The polling stations are open 7am-10pm. For more information on where to vote – or if you need a lift to vote – call 01242 224889.
Cheltenham’s planning committee have refused Miller Homes’ application for 350 new houses on land next to the Shurdington Road.
I put a strong case to the committee based on issues I really care about as a Leckhampton resident myself:
The Conservative-run County Council thinks adding even more traffic to the Shurdington Road isn’t going to cause severe congestion. I beg to differ.
Traffic. I argued that Miller and the county council had still done nothing about the traffic this application would add to local roads. Even the Conservative county councillor and I agreed her own council hadn’t done enough. But the official county council highways advice was still ‘no objection’.
Landscape. I’ve campaigned to protect our green fields for decades. While development is expected next to the Shurdington Road alongside the 26 hectares of Local Green Space protected in the Lib Dem Local Plan, this application encroached on prominent fields a government inspector previously said shouldn’t be developed.
The Miller bid was refused because none of the planned houses were zero carbon, all would be gas-heated and less than half would have solar panels . I also argued that the development encroached on fields a planning inspector had ruled shoud not be built on
Climate change. I don’t oppose all development. Last year I backed 22 new zero carbon houses for Leckhampton on a nearby ‘brownfield’ site. But Miller said they couldn’t even manage solar panels on the majority of their houses because they faced the wrong way (even though they designed them!). Houses like these won’t be allowed anywhere under rules expected in 2025 so I’m proud Lib Dem-led Cheltenham is saying no to them here now. This was the key reason councillors gave for refusal.
Local facilities. I also argued Miller had made no space for a local shop or an expanded doctor’s surgery. We need communities where people can walk and cycle to local facilities. This wasn’t one of the grounds used for refusal but I’ll keep arguing for better local provision.
Miller may appeal and we might all end up in front of another government inspector. But I really hope Miller will come up with a much better & greener plan – and that the county come up with a traffic plan too.
You can rest assured that if I’m re-elected on 5 May, I’ll stay on the case.
I don’t always support new housing developments in Leckhampton (there’s still time to object to Redrow’s awful new plan to build right in front of the AONB here using ref 21/02750/FUL).
But last week I gave enthusiastic support to one new development. Local developer Newland Homes brought forward a plan for 22 new homes on a former nursery site in Kidnappers Lane. 9 will be affordable, meeting the Cheltenham Lib Dem target of 40% of every new development being affordable housing. They’re on a so-called ‘brownfield’ site actually suggested by the parish council as appropriate for development – a good example of how trusting local people and their representatives, instead of trying every trick in the planning playbook to override local opinion, really doesn’t mean no homes being built anywhere. Newland spoke at length to Cheltenham’s professional planning department and to parish councillors as they revised their plans.
Where Cheltenham’s first zero carbon housing estate is going to be built on Kidnappers Lane in Leckhampton
But most important of all every single house will be zero carbon when its occupied. This is going to be achieved through a combination of really good insulation, air source heat pumps and solar panels which will also send some electricity back into the grid to offset any non-zero carbon electricity that’s bought in. It’s a big step towards the Lib Dem goal of getting Cheltenham to net zero by 2030.
This is a revolutionary moment and something I’ve been campaigning for all my political career. When I was an MP the Lib Dems pushed the coalition government into setting a deadline of 2016 for all new housing to be zero carbon. As soon as the Conservatives took over on their own they got rid of that deadline despite the science surrounding the climate crisis getting more and more alarming with every passing year. So we’re struggling to persuade other developers like Miller Homes – hoping to build 350 new homes only a few hundred metres away – to build zero carbon homes because government rules still say they don’t have to.
But here in Leckhampton at least one developer is doing it anyway with our support, proving it can be done, by a private developer, with both open market and affordable housing. It’s possible and it’s commercially viable. At last, the revolution has begun. And I’m really proud that it’s happening in Leckhampton.
Until 15 November you can still have your say on the future of Leckhampton by visiting www.haveyoursay.cheltenham.gov.uk (or by using this QR code) and taking part in the Parish Council’s Neighbourhood Plan survey. And every submitted response enters you in a draw to win £100!
Scan this QR code to go to the Neighbourhood Plan consultation
Parish Councils are the butt of many jokes (thank you Vicar of Dibley and Jackie Weaver!) but their Neighbourhood Plan is surprisingly important. It sets out our community’s approach to protecting local green spaces, where we want development to go and how we want it to look and which local facilities we value. Neighbourhood Plans were introduced in the Localism Act passed when the Lib Dems were in government and they really count in planning permission decisions alongside the National Planning Policy Framework, the Cheltenham Plan and (in the the case of our three councils Gloucester, Tewkesbury and Cheltenham) as Joint Core Strategy (JCS) that allocates land for major housing developments.
For historic reasons, it doesn’t yet cover all of Leckhampton but you can still have your say if you’re in the area.
The area inside the red lines has already been protected as Local Green Space in the Lib Dems’ Cheltenham Plan – but the Neighbourhood Plan can reinforce that protection
In the case of the Leckhampton Fields, we managed to get them taken out of that JCS to stop pretty much all of them being built on and then got 26 hectares protected in the Lib Dem borough council’s Cheltenham Plan last year alongside 350 new homes – many of them affordable – and the new secondary school which is now going up on Kidnappers Lane. The parish council’s Neighbourhood Plan strongly supports the permanent protection of these treasured green spaces. But it also lists the community facilities like local shops and play areas that we value most and includes policies on our heritage assets and even how we want to protect the area against flooding.
The parish council and its Neighbourhood Plan working group (which I co-chair with Councillor Graham Beale) has already organised thousands of leaflet drops and two drop-in events and we’ve had hundreds of responses but we still want more. And please don’t use the unofficial survey issued in the name of ‘Leglag’. If you want a paper copy, call the parish clerk on 07739 719079 and she will make sure you get the proper one.
The drop-in events have finished now but you can still respond online by 15 November.
And there’s a bonus too. If we get all the way to a final referendum on the plan, probably in the first half of next year, and if the plan is approved, the parish council will get even more to spend on local facilities through the Community Infrastructure Levy which comes from the developers building all that housing. So new projects like the fundraising appeal just launched for a revamped Scout Hut on Leckhampton Road would be great candidates for some of that money.
So get online now and complete the survey! The whole plan is 160 pages long and the survey has links to key policies which are themselves quite long in places but please keep going even if you have to skim through it a bit. Remember you could win £100 and help the local community along the way!
It’s been a long time coming but consultation by the county council as highways authority has finally begun on a proposed Traffic Regulation Order (TRO) to tackle dangerous corner parking in Leckhampton. It covers hotspots across Leckhampton and some neighbouring wards as well.
Dangerous corner parking was one of the first issues that was raised with me when I first ran for the council back in 2018, particularly the exits onto Leckhampton’s big main roads. Since then I’ve raised it repeatedly including during my stint as chair of the parish highways group. First there was negotiation over the possibilitity of combining multiple sites to reduce the cost of consultation, then over who would fund the consultation and then over which sites really justified even consideration of new yellow lines (several visits were apparently necessary and parish councillors were despatched to talk to residents). Finally there was further discussion of actual detailed plans. Now we have an agreed list to consult members of the public on but even that has started in a very limited way . Don’t worry though – you still have the chance to have your say: more formal consultation is planned for later in the process and I’m told “site notices and plans are placed around the site on street furniture, adverts placed in the local press and a page posted on the Gloucestershire County Council website”. Watch out for them!
I thought it would be helpful for people to see all the plans that are being considered so here are the ones proposed in or very near to Leckhampton ward..
There have been a few compromises and defeats along the way but this afternoon, after more than 40 years of local campaigning, most of Leckhampton’s much-loved green fields around Kidnappers’ Lane and Farm Lane will today be designated as a protected Local Green Space when the new Cheltenham Plan is adopted by the borough council.
The green fields are an oasis of green space, ancient hedgerows and accessible pathways, the last remnant within the borough of Cheltenham of the medieval pattern of small fields, meadows and smallholdings that once characterised most of this area. Thousands of local people have joined repeated campaigns to fend off the loss of the entire area almost all of which has been optioned by developers.
Lott Meadow, a miraculous survival of an ancient field from medieval times, now a haven for local bats and many other species, and enjoyed and valued by thousands of local people – and now finally protected at the heart of the new Local Green Space designation
As well as protecting much of the green space, today’s Cheltenham Plan, in accordance with the hotly contested Joint Core Strategy agreed with Gloucester and Tewkesbury, also allows space for at least 250 new homes, most of them next to the Shurdington Road in the so-called ‘northern fields’ with some going on old nursery sites further up Kidnappers Lane. Since hundreds of new homes have also just been built at the corner of Farm Lane and Leckhampton Lane (permitted against furious local opposition by the neighbouring borough of Tewkesbury), the Leckhampton community is currently contributing more to local housing need than most other parts of Cheltenham. And thanks to the county council literally moving the goalposts, a new secondary school is also expected to be built on fields that were previously agreed to be remaining entirely green as playing fields. Your local Lib Dem councillors Iain Dobie and myself have fought to ensure that at least the buildings are more environmentally friendly and local hedgerows and natural habitats are protected in the process. And while many planning inspectors’ enquiries have supported campaigners in protecting the valued green fields for their rural character, the most recent inspector arbitrarily reduced the size of the Local Green Space designation which could be protected.
Leckhampton in the Cheltenham Plan being adopted today. The new Local Green Space designation which offers strong protection to green spaces important to local people, is shaded in green.
The Local Green Space designation didn’t even exist 40 years ago and the whole area was ‘safeguarded’ for future development. Campaigners like local Liberal councillor Kit Braunholtz and my father Don Horwood couldn’t claim the area enjoyed the chocolate box landscape of the nearby Cotswolds AONB or many particularly rare species that would have earned scientific protection nor was any of the area recognised under archaic ‘village green’ laws. But they rallied thousands of local people under the banner of the Leckhampton Green Land Action Group. Wider opinion about the environment was already changing too: the value of local green spaces to peoples’ mental and physical health, their biodiversity and ‘ecosytem services’ in reducing carbon emissions, filtering out air pollution, absorbing flood water and providing free recreation were all gaining more recognition.
In 2006 a previous Cheltenham Plan introduced by the Lib Dem administration recognised the area’s unique rural character and importance but the threats were still there: Labour’s top-down Regional Spatial Strategy or RSS threatened to overturn local plans and impose urban sprawl on Leckhampton, sacrificing all the green fields. I had just become an MP and wrote a new policy for the Lib Dem opposition which would create a new designation that offered a high level of protection on the basis of a green space’s well-established importance to local people, not just to great crested newts or landscape painters. This policy made it into the Lib Dem manifesto in 2010 and from there straight into the new coalition’s Programme for Government. The coalition quickly abolished Labour’s toxic RSS and, against all the odds, the new Local Green Space designation made it into the new National Planning Policy Framework in 2012. Some councils (like Tewkesbury) largely ignored it but Cheltenham’s Lib Dem administration enthusiastically planned to designate dozens of vital green spaces across Cheltenham’s urban area including the Leckhampton fields. In all 16 will be designated today including vital green spaces in Fairview, St.Mark’s, Hesters Way, Benhall, Charlton Park and Hatherley.
Leckhampton’s green fields from the Cotswolds Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty at Leckhampton Hill, visible as islands of green amongst the growing urban area.
While this process ground slowly forward, Leckhampton’s active Parish Council picked up where the early campaigners left off and fought tooth and nail alongside local borough councillors to protect the fields from overdevelopment based on growth-based housing projections often way in excess of local housing need.
The outcome isn’t the complete protection of the whole area my father and others originally campaigned for but councils rightly have to strike a balance between the genuine pressures for new homes and schools and the need to protect the most important green spaces for local people and particularly the children who will live in those homes and go to those schools. I’m proud that Cheltenham Borough Council has managed to square that awkward circle and will today deliver the strong protection for most of the Leckhampton fields for which we have campaigned for decades – and proud to have played my own part over decades.
We now have to make sure this protection is defended against reviews of the Joint Core Strategy, planning “reforms” by the new Conservative government and the constant, well-funded pressure of developers. We can develop our own Neighbourhood Plan and plan to encourage use of the green fields and educate everyone about their importance to our own health and wellbeing, our community and the local and global environment.
Parish and borough councillor Martin Horwood, 20 July 2020
Today the county’s Health Overview & Scrutiny Committee (HOSC) met in private for a joint Q&A session with the parallel scrutiny committee on adult social care and with senior local health and social care managers. I was part of this meeting as Cheltenham Borough Council’s representative but I don’t think it should have been held in private – and I said so. The county’s planning committee managed to hold a public virtual meeting last month yet the HOSC – which hasn’t met properly since January – isn’t even going to try to meet formally and in public until July. And this at a time of obviously heightened concern about public health, the NHS, care homes and the reconfiguration of local services like Cheltenham’s A&E during the crisis.
So here’s my public report back on some of the key questions raised and points made:
We did take time to thank the NHS, public health and social care teams and all their staff. And I added thanks to managers for innovations like mobile chemotherapy and online GP appointments that we should stick with even after the virus is defeated!
I questioned hospital chief executive Deborah Lee and Mary Hutton from the Gloucestershire clinical commissioning group (the NHS body that pays for local NHS services) about the planned reconfiguration of local services during the coronavirus crisis and whether or not these were genuinely temporary. The changes are aimed at separating Covid19 and non-Covid19 patients as far as possible, limiting the risk of transmission and enabling other services to return to something like normality. But they do involve temporarily downgrading Cheltenham A&E to a minor injuries unit (and possibly only a daytime one) while Gloucestershire Royal becomes the ‘front door’ for emergency admissions where Covid (‘red’) and non-Covid (‘green’) patients are separated, as well as centralising general surgery and possibly other surgical specialities in Gloucester while Cheltenham is kept clear of Covid for other intensive care cases, oncology, acute stroke care and some ‘elective’ or planned surgery.
Local Lib Dems have campaigned for years to protect the future of Cheltenham’s A&E department
What’s worrying local campaigners like REACH is that this doesn’t obviously reflect a neat red/green split and looks suspiciously like the rejected plan to downgrade Cheltenham General emergency and general surgical care that we all thought had been ditched. I was assured that the detailed changes were genuinely aimed at separating red and green patient pathways and that, yes, a full ‘Type 1’ A&E would be restored at Cheltenham in the end. I hope so.
Local Director of Public Health Sarah Scott reported the latest county statistics on the coronavirus. Following the national trend, they show fewer cases and deaths from Covid19 in Gloucestershire. Our total of 1369 confirmed cases (national data) and 533 deaths remains higher than more rural areas further south west but comparable to neighbouring counties and to statistically similar ones across the country. The urban areas of Gloucester (402 cases) and Cheltenham (320) are highest, again reflecting the pattern elsewhere. Questioned by Lib Dem representative from the Costwolds Paul Hodgkinson, she said there was no evidence that the Cheltenham Festival had caused extra deaths, not least because no attendees were traced or tested. The racecourse itself took the decision to carry on, following government guidance at the time.
Leckhampton & Warden Hill county councillor Iain Dobie raised the sharp drop in cancer treatment reported by the hospitals trust. He was told that referrals in from GPs and elsewhere were still running at only 55% of the normal rate suggesting many people with worrying symptoms are still staying away, even from their GPs. If that’s you, don’t delay.
I asked about the government’s test & trace strategy announced as ‘live’ on 28 May. It clearly isn’t up and running at full tilt locally with some data already coming through from national level but not yet in a format that allowed local public health teams to act on it effectively. We were told that could still be weeks away. Which makes the ongoing government lifting of lockdown measures look risky in the extreme.
The county council reported on the situation in care homes which is still concerning but at least testing and personal protective equipment (PPE) provision are now much better. Still, we were told some care homes had refused training in the proper use of PPE and that this training has only just started for domiciliary care workers who visit vulnerable people at home. Another alarming statistic was that there had been no great rise in hospital admissions fom care homes despite Covid. While some very frail residents wouldn’t have wanted admission regardless of illness, that still suggests to me that elderly people who should have gone to hospital didn’t. Perhaps part of the emerging national picture that government simply wasn’t on top of the lethal crisis in our care homes.
Several of the senior public health and NHS staff agreed we are not out of the woods yet. In the absence of widespread vaccination or more effective treatment, Covid19 may be a real threat for at least a year more. A second surge in infection is quite posssible. So please abide by the measures still in force including keeping your distance, regular handwashing and limiting contact with those from outside your household. More details here.
