Churchdown might be many things – but a suburb of Gloucester it definitely isn’t.
That’s exactly what a planning inspector working on the county’s Joint Core Strategy housing blueprint has discovered after incurring the wrath of community leaders there.
A report drawn up as part of the ongoing process which will see 30,000 homes built across the county in the coming years calls Churchdown a ‘suburb of Gloucester’.
It’s not a mistake likely to be repeated after parish councillors wrote a formal letter registering their annoyance at the oversight.
The letter, written by Churchdown Parish Council clerk Ruth Warne, states: “The problem here is the statement that ‘Churchdown is a suburb of Gloucester’.
“This is not true either from a geographical or administrative point of view. Churchdown is a separate entity from Gloucester, being physically separated by fields and also is a parish within the confines of Tewkesbury borough.
“Therefore, it cannot possibly qualify as a ‘suburb’.”
The offending line in the report reads: “As Churchdown is a suburb of Gloucester, removing this segment from the green belt would also significantly impact on the separation of Cheltenham and Gloucester.”
The parish council considers the statement as a ‘very significant error’.
The report states that development between Churchdown and Gloucester should be permitted as Churchdown is part of Gloucester, but that development between Churchdown and Cheltenham should not be allowed as the two are separate.