Cheshire Pension Fund’s redevelopment scheme for Lansdown Industrial Estate in Cheltenham slammed
Cheltenham Civic Society has written to every councillor in both Cheltenham Borough Council (CBC) and Cheshire West and Chester Council (CWaC) – which administers the Cheshire Pension Fund. It is asking the former to reject the scheme when it comes up for decision at CBC’s Planning Committee soon, and the latter to withdraw the scheme and reconsider its approach.
Cheltenham Civic Society’s Chair, Andrew Booton, said: “There is no way that Chester would allow such a poor-quality housing development to desecrate any of its heritage. So we don’t think they should allow their pension fund to foist this scheme on Cheltenham and thereby destroy much of what’s left of our industrial heritage.”
The letter and attached document (download here) sent to councillors demonstrates why the site is historically important, criticises the poor quality of Chester’s housing scheme, and draws attention to the poor consultation and heritage appraisal. It also highlights the environmental need to reuse some of the buildings, rather than release the thousands of tonnes of embodied carbon in the existing buildings.
“We are not against the redevelopment of this site,” added Andrew Booton, “but we want to see it done responsibly with due respect to our remaining industrial heritage. So much so that we have also put forward an alternative approach that could be just as financially rewarding to the pension fund. We would like Chester to engage properly with key interest groups such as the Civic Society, reconsider their plans and come back with a much better scheme next year.”
