From:	Hannah Millman
Sent:	21 February 2019 16:01
To:	Tracey Smith
Cc:	John Rowley
Subject:	Council's position regarding Employment Sites

Dear Tracey,

During the economic development hearing session, the Inspector asked the Council to confirm its 
position regarding a question of double counting of employment sites being allocated in the plan, by 
email, below is the Council’s response.

During the economic development hearing session held in the afternoon of Wednesday 13th February, a 
question was raised about whether the sites proposed for allocation in policy EM3 of the Cheltenham 
Plan is being double counted, whether the sites have already been taken into account in the Joint Core 
Strategy Economic Update Note, February 2016 (examination document reference ED019).
The JCS Economic Update Note, February 2016 demonstrates how the JCS authorities were planning to 
meet the employment land requirement at that time, including existing extant consents at that time and 
other available and suitable sites, as listed in appendix 2 of that document. The only site which features 
in the Update Note that also appears in the Cheltenham Plan is site E4 Chelt Walk, which in the update 
note is called Land at St George's Place/ St James' Square. This site was identified in February 2016 as 
having potential to be developed and it is from this potential site that the capacity of 1ha (rounded up) 
is derived, which led to the proposed allocation in the Cheltenham Plan.
The other sites that are within Cheltenham Borough which feature in the Economic Update Note, are 
those sites that had extant planning permission at that time. 
The Council do not believe that any double counting has taken place between the Cheltenham Plan as 
submitted and the JCS Economic Update Note from February 2016.
The monitoring reports that are sited in Appendix 1 of the Economic Update Note, offer a snapshot in 
time, and can become out of date very quickly. The latest non-residential monitoring report produced 
by the Council dated August 2018 (Examination Library document reference NS068) gives the most up to 
date position available.
The Council have allocated sites E1, E2 and E3 to encourage these sites to be developed for employment 
uses, as they are considered appropriate for this use being in line with the overall strategy. To some 
degree it is irrelevant whether these sites have been double counted or not, although the Council does 
not believe this to be the case. The allocation of the site E4- Chelt Walk is consistent with the Economic 
Update Note and therefore the Joint Core Strategy as a whole. 

Kind Regards
Hannah

Hannah Millman
Senior Planning Policy Officer

Cheltenham Borough Council
Website: www.cheltenham.gov.uk