Planning

Our Planning Principles

To learn more about how the Civic Society views planning, please read the Our Planning Principles document, which you can download from our Downloads page.

The Planning Forum

Cheltenham Civic Society’s Planning Forum is a formal consultee to the Planning Committee of Cheltenham Borough Council.

The Forum offers constructive feedback on the merits (or otherwise) of the planning and listed building applications received by the Council.

Safeguarding the town’s 2,600+ listed buildings is one of its highest concerns – along with the protection of the five conservation areas and promoting high-quality design for new buildings.

Click here to read more about the work of the Planning Forum.

Minutes of previous meetings with the Forum’s comments can be seen here.  To read these comments in context it is helpful to see the documents submitted to the Council and these can be found at the Cheltenham Borough Council website.

Our Responses to Planning Policy Issues

As well as discussing and submitting comments on individual planning applications, the Society’s Planning Forum also takes a great interest in planning policy issues.

Previously, we have have prepared and submitted detailed responses to such policy debates as the Strategic and Local Plan (2024) and the government’s 2020 White Paper.

More recently, we have submitted our comprehensive feedback on the new government’s proposals to reform the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF).

These documents are all available to read and download from our Downloads page. The quick links below will take you directly to our recent NPPF submissions.

NPPF CCS summary 2024

NPPF CCS comments 2024

NPPF CCS position paper 2024