Supplementary planning documents (SPDs) are intended to expand upon policy or provide further detail to policies in development plan documents (DPDs) explaining how policies can be taken forward.
SPDs are not part of the statutory development plan and they do not include land allocations or policies, which must be subject to independent examination. However, they are an important material considerations in determining planning applications.
SPDs may cover a range of issues and can be thematic or site specific. For example, an SPD can be a design guide, development brief or a topic or issue based document. SPDs must be consistent with national planning policy and guidance, as well as local authority DPDs.
The Sustainability Appraisal Report should be read in conjunction with the SPD that you are interested in.
At a meeting of the council's Cabinet on 16 December 2025 a decision was made to revoke various Supplementary Planning Guidance (SPG) notes, Urban Design Concept Statement informal guidance notes and the Cheltenham Civic Pride Urban Design Framework Supplementary Planning Document (SPD).
The Notice of Revocation made under Regulation 15 of the Town and Country Planning (Local Planning) (England) Regulation 2012 (as amended) provides a list of all of the revoked documents.
The council’s Climate Change SPD was adopted in June 2022. It will be used as a material consideration in the determination of planning and related applications.
The SPD enables planning policy to drive the positive change that the council wants to see from large and small developers around the borough. Its purpose is to enable sustainable design and construction, and help reduce the potential negative environmental impacts of the property development industry.
The SPD incorporates guidance on different aspects of sustainable design and construction including energy and carbon, climate change adaption, water efficiency, flood prevention, pollution, sustainable transport, biodiversity and waste reduction. It also includes a checklist to help applicants and those thinking about new development and retrofit to produce a sustainability statement to demonstrate how they are responding to climate change and related issues.
Nature recovery refers to the process of restoring and revitalising ecosystems that have been degraded or lost due to human activity or climate change.
Although not part of the development plan, this SPD is a material consideration for schemes linked to the topics of its contents, in this case: biodiversity, biodiversity net gain (BNG), ecology, nature recovery, trees, sustainable drainage, and green infrastructure.
The contents of this SPD set out:
This document is targeted at those who intend on making the most out of the biodiversity components of their planning schemes.
This SPD forms part of Cheltenham Borough Council’s response to the climate and biodiversity crisis, the environmental objectives of the NPPF, the Environment Act 2021 and the Gloucestershire Local Nature Recovery Strategy (LNRS).
Consultation concluded in December 2025 and a consultation statement summarising the comments received including details of how the main issues raised have been dealt within the final SPD has been published below.
The Nature Recovery Supplementary Planning Document was adopted by Cheltenham Borough Council's Cabinet on 14 April 2026. In accordance with Regulations 11 and 14 of the Town and Country Planning (Local Planning) (England) Regulations 2012 (as amended), the statutory adoption statement and supporting text have been published and can be accessed by the following links below:
Local planning authorities need to make an assessment of the special character and appearance of all conservation areas in their districts. The assessment should be reviewed every five years.
The conservation area appraisals provide an assessment of the character of conservation areas or their parts and provide the basis for a management plan, which gives guidance on how the preservation or enhancement of the conservation area can be achieved. The appraisals also provide a sound basis for development control and other decisions made by local authorities (such as the design of highways or the appropriateness of the design of new buildings or open spaces).
The Central Conservation Area has been divided into 19 character areas in total. 17 character appraisals and management plans were adopted by the council on 28 July 2008. The previous 3 character appraisals and management plans were adopted in February 2007. They will be used as a material consideration in the determination of planning and related applications.
Important note: On 29 June 2009, the council approved an amendment to the boundary of the Lower High Street character area, which forms part of the Central Conservation Area. The approved amendment has meant that Brailsford House on Knapp Lane and its associated land (to the south and east of Brailsford House) is now included within the boundary of the Lower High Street character area. As a result the relevant maps within the Central Conservation Area Supplementary Planning Documents have been amended to show this boundary change.
The Residential alterations and extensions SPD was adopted by the council on 8 February 2008. It aims to assist householders, developers and agents when preparing schemes for altering or extending individual houses, and it will be used as a material consideration in the determination of planning and related applications.
The guide’s purpose is to ensure that the character of each of the residential areas within the borough is not degraded through poorly-designed extensions and alterations to residential properties. It is intended for use throughout the borough, especially in residential localities outside the conservation areas.
Civic Pride is a project to boost Cheltenham’s economy by enhancing its town centre streets and spaces.
To guide the project, the borough originally adopted the Cheltenham Civic Pride Urban Design Framework SPD (the UDF) in 2008. The UDF brings together a set of technical appendices which, between them, provide co-ordinated urban design, transport and public realm strategies for the town centre, and development briefs for two key borough-owned sites. Together they describe a sustainable package of measures for better designed town centre streets and spaces and improved traffic management, benefiting local people, enabling greener transport and bolstering the local economy.
The two development briefs were revised (North Place and Portland Street in 2010; Royal Well in 2013) and it was necessary to reflect the changes in a revised SPD - Cheltenham Civic Pride Urban Design Framework - 2010 Revisions, which was adopted in December 2010.
Local planning authorities need to make an assessment of the special character and appearance of all conservation areas in their districts. The assessment should be reviewed every five years.
The conservation area appraisals provide an assessment of the character of conservation areas or their parts and provide the basis for a management plan, which gives guidance on how to preserve or enhance the conservation area. The appraisals also provides a sound basis for development control and other decisions made by local authorities (such as the design of highways or the appropriateness of the design of new buildings or open spaces).
In addition to the 19 character appraisals and management plans adopted by the council for the Central Conservation Area, the following additional documents have been adopted:
The Development on garden land and infill sites SPD was adopted by the council in June 2009. It will be used as a material consideration in the determination of planning and related applications.
Every year, the council receives a significant number of planning applications for development on gardens of existing properties in Cheltenham. We are concerned that many of these are not of as high a quality as they should be. Some sites are simply unsuited for more development. Elsewhere, designers have failed to fully consider the character of the area and the impact of their proposals on that character, or on nearby residents.
The purpose of the SPD is to help ensure that only well-designed garden land and infill schemes in the right places get the go-ahead. It is also about helping make poor quality applications a thing of the past. The document:
The Index of buildings of local interest SPD was adopted by the council on 28 June 2007. It will be used as a material consideration in the determination of planning and related applications. The SPD provides advice and guidance to owners and occupiers of buildings included on the borough's index of buildings of local interest.
The Golden Valley Development is the new name for the strategic allocation site in the Joint Core Strategy 2011-2031 (JCS) identified as A7 West Cheltenham and the future safeguarded land (Hayden Sewage Treatment Works) identified within SD5 of the JCS. The Golden Valley Development comprises the new garden community development and the home of Cyber Central UK.
Responding positively to the Government’s Garden Communities and National Cyber Security agendas, the objective is to deliver a pioneering new community that combines world-class cyber business and academic facilities, exemplar housing and state-of-the-art amenity and leisure facilities in a highly accessible and environmentally sustainable development.
As part of a number of key strategic sites being identified in the JCS, the site presents a unique opportunity to pro-actively deliver new investment, new jobs, new homes and new infrastructure in an innovative environmentally sensitive manner. Key requirements for the allocated site (Policy A7 of JCS) can be summarised as follows:
This SPD has been adopted by Cheltenham and Tewkesbury councils and seeks to provide guidance on how the above outcomes are expected to be delivered, and further details on the interpretation of the relevant development plan policies.
© Cheltenham Borough Council 2026
