Always on
This project successfully funded on 3rd May 2026, you can still support them with a donation.
Stop Churcham new town
Gloucester, Gloucestershire, United Kingdom
Aim
Please help fund the fight against 4500 houses proposed in the triangle between the A40 & A48, the most congested area in Gloucestershire.
The recently approved Preferred Strategy, currently open under public consultation until the 18th March 2026, threatens damaging, irreversible changes to our District and local economies.
The most effective ways to question, and succeed in reconfiguring the Preferred Strategy, are two-fold:
1. Engage a Planning Consultant whose expertise will help us develop an alternative, viable, development strategy
2. Encourage each and every Forest of Dean inhabitant to not miss out on sharing their views with their District Councillors via the Local Plan Consultation page
https://fdean-consult.objective.co.uk/kse/
To achieve this, together we must raise funds.
A cross-Parish group is liaising with Planning Consultants ready to craft an improved, revised Local Plan Strategy in what will be a vital but likely expensive exercise.
We must act now, and use all available tools and resources in order to raise awareness about the Preferred Strategy among all Forest of Dean inhabitants, young and old, by investing in online and off-line communications.
Crucially, we have only a short window to inform our local communities, and make sure you and I, and all of our neighbours have the chance to have our say!
How will my donation help?
All funds raised will be spent exclusively on our campaign, including:
Engagement of a Planning Consultant to develop an alternative strategy for development for representation by a Consultant throughout the process, the cost is likely to be around £15,000.
The better support we get the better chance we have of success.
- To invest in signage and billboards to be erected across the District – to highlight the key issues within the District Council’s Preferred Strategy, and inform people how to have their say
- To print leaflets – to engage people across the District who are not computer literate
- To fund Facebook advertising - to maximise our reach across ~31,000 social media users within the District to spread awareness and encourage people to have their say
Why engage a Planning Consultant?
To deliver a robust, successful challenge to the District Council’s Preferred Strategy we must create an alternative, a workable solution that reflects the interests of the Forest of Dean and guarantees our towns’ future economic, social and environmental prosperity.
A Planning Consultant will boost our chances of a successful challenge by:
- Providing expertise to navigate a complex set of rules and regulations that govern planning policy
- To represent us alongside Parish Councillors at planning meetings, to add weight and legitimacy to our challenge
Why do we need to develop an alternative Preferred Strategy?
If the District fails to submit a Preferred Strategy to the housing inspector in 2027, under new government guidelines, housing developers will be gifted free reign over all land, to pick and choose where to develop.
It is understood that a Preferred Strategy, should inhabitants have been given due opportunity to scrutinise it, would enable the District to at least identify the areas available to developers.
However, our District Council’s existing Preferred Strategy demonstrates little-to-no consideration to the future prosperity of the Forest of Dean. It promotes building new towns that will simply suck investment out of the Forest of Dean, and instead boost Gloucester’s economy.
Green and Labour Councillors likewise seem content to allow construction across swathes of greenfield land, despite there being better options and brownfield sites ripe for development and regeneration across the District.
A new, reconfigured, and evidence-based strategy for development would:
- Represent the most effective way to force the District Council to re-assess their existing Preferred Strategy
- Address and, crucially, provide a workable solution to the environmental, social and economic implications of the Council’s preferred option, promoting a sustainable, viable way forward
- Ensure that the interests and future of Forest of Dean inhabitants are protected through development, regeneration and investment that will positively contribute to making our market towns attractive and profitable now and in the future
- Save our green field land from the hands of developers
Why challenge the District Council’s existing Preferred Strategy for development?
- Lack of Democracy and consultation from the District Council
- Economic, social and environmental impacts
- Impact on wildlife
- Pressure on infrastructure and transportation
The Forest of Dean Local Plan is proposing 2000 houses at Churcham, similarly Tewkesbury Borough Council wish to add 2500 houses to that figure making a sum total of 4500 houses. This will conservatively mean 9000 new journeys on one of the most congested stretches of the A40 and A48. Additionally, all the Forest of Dean traffic heading in the direction of Gloucester and surrounds must travel on these same roads in order to cross the river Severn which only has one crossing bridge situated at Over.
Anyone who currently commutes this route already knows the misery of the regular traffic jams at Over Farm which at peak times stretches back miles. This congestion is not only stressful for the commuters but this consistent bottleneck also damages the local economy of the Forest of Dean and surrounding area.
Proposing 4500 houses at this critical pinch point will only add to the misery of further traffic congestion. It is totally unsustainable not only for the traffic increase but also because the area has flooded multiple times recently blocking off all roads.
We need to highlight the serious issues around this preferred option with the aim to force a rethink by the Forest of Dean District Council and have an alternative proposal that invests in the Forest of Dean. It is not the right location for such a large development and will cause lasting damage to the economic viability of the Forest region and impact directly commuters on a daily basis.
Please help with a donation of any amount and try to ensure a more sensible proposed scheme is progressed. Your help will be greatly appreciated and the funds will be put to good use to support this important cause.
Please donate whatever you can, and share our campaign widely!
Thank you!
Funding method
Keep what you raise – this project will receive all pledges made