Press release
02 June 2025
Launch date for new EV charge points
Tewkesbury Borough Council’s eight new electric vehicle (EV) charge points, installed in Spring Gardens carpark in Tewkesbury, are now active just in time for Summer visitors. The units, installed by Evolt Charging on behalf of the council, will be formally opened on the first market day in June, Wednesday, 4 June.
Cllr Cate Cody, Lead Member for Climate and Ecology, said: “A large and increasing number of residents and visitors have contacted me asking about the provision of EV charging in Tewkesbury.
“Having chargers assures everyone that our historic town is a convenient and attractive place, and recharging EVs allows plenty of time to explore with lots on offer from shops and businesses, the Abbey and the rivers to our markets and annual events such as the Medieval Festival and Tewkesbury Live.
“I am also pleased that the bays have been laid out following the latest PAS1899 guidance ensuring ample room around the vehicles for all users.”
Other borough council-owned car parks will have charge points installed in the future as part of an ongoing programme which is part-funded by the UK Government’s Shared Prosperity Fund.
How will they work?
Drivers can access them using the Evolt app, zap map, web pay and with RFID cards to begin charging, using their own cables to connect the car to the chargepoint.
The charge points will cost 50p per kWh plus 30p transaction fee. More details: Spring Gardens, Oldbury Road, Tewkesbury, GL20 5LR – Tewkesbury Borough Council
The installation process
Installing public infrastructure such as EV charge points requires the co-ordination of many phases. Having planned everything thoroughly with Evolt Charging, our Asset Management team devised a phased approach which began in December with the laying of the underground power cables.
Next was the installation of the physical charge points themselves before the signage and line marking could be added. Connection to the power grid has now been completed and final testing of the units was the last step of the physical installation process, before finally the configuration of the back office support systems and the app.
Internal combustion engines are the greatest source of greenhouse gases in Tewkesbury borough, so providing opportunity for charging and enabling a shift to electrification will help reduce greenhouse gas emissions and can also help improve air quality.
For more information, contact: climatechange@tewkesbury.gov.uk
ENDS
Flood Warden Resources and Information – November
Please find the November edition of Resources and Information.
This month’s includes important information on how to effectively report issues to the relevant authorities, where to go to stay up to date with warnings and guidance, and some simple steps to stay safe in the cold weather.
Click here for more information
Council helps to optimise infrastructure delivery within Garden Communities
Tewkesbury Borough Council has committed to ensuring that critical infrastructure is delivered ahead of, and as part of, housing growth within its Garden Communities programme.
Reflecting the necessity of a bridge to unlock access to the first phase of the Garden Communities, the borough council has entered into a conditional sale agreement to purchase land at Northway Court Farm, Tewkesbury, if planning permission is granted.
Importantly, unlike the previous bridge project – colloquially known as the ‘bridge to nowhere’ – on this occasion the Council is securing the ability to acquire the land needed to enable the bridge to come forward as part of planning applications that will deliver housing to meet the local need.
Having listened to concerns raised about the previous bridge project, the council will not be submitting a planning application to deliver a ‘standalone’ bridge. The responsibility of securing planning permission now lies with developers as part of their broader planning applications, and they will be required to demonstrate the validity of the overall scheme within the environmental, and other relevant, planning policies not addressed previously.
If planning permission is secured by the developers, the council will build the bridge and is in discussions with Homes England to secure the necessary grant funding for this, including the cost of an improved design.
Without this proactive approach, the cost of this essential infrastructure – including the bridge, road, and the works required to close the Grange Road level crossing, which could total up to £20 million—would negatively affect the viability of the project. The intention is therefore to ensure as much money as possible is available to deliver community infrastructure. This plays a particularly important role in making a Garden Community and reflects what the local community has asked for.
This move by the council aligns with the emerging masterplans that are coming forward for the Garden Communities, with recent illustrations by the North Ashchurch Consortium showcasing a local road that would connect new communities east of Aston Cross with Northway, linking with existing routes into Tewkesbury town centre and avoiding the congested A46 and Junction 9, along with significant community infrastructure including primary schools, local centres, health facilities and space for a secondary school and supermarket.
Tewkesbury Borough Council Chief Executive, Alistair Cunningham OBE, said: “We know from our previous work that a bridge is required to enable the Garden Communities development to proceed, and we have carefully considered the way forward, particularly after the judicial review in 2023.
“We are stepping in to ensure the bridge remains a viable option and to secure grant funding to deliver the scheme. In securing the land and funding for the bridge, we will, over time, be able to recover the costs from the developers and reinvest this additional funding into not only the Garden Communities initiative but also the town centre and Tewkesbury as a whole. This approach should ensure the developers can deliver more community infrastructure.
“It is important to be very clear that our involvement in this scheme in no way conflicts with the role of the local planning authority in assessing any applications that should be received. Development, particularly involving rail infrastructure, is extremely complex with long lead-in times, and the relationships developed by the council with Network Rail over the past few years means the council is in the best position to bring the bridge forward in a timely manner.”
Garden Communities Charter
Tewkesbury Borough Council’s Garden Communities Charter has received endorsement from developers and community groups alike as the first group of signatories are announced.
Bellway, Bromford and Mansfield Partners (which together form the North Ashchurch Consortium), along with Northway Parish Council, Gloucestershire Rural Communities Council and St. Nicholas’ Church Parish Council have each signed up to the charter’s nine development principles.
Some organisations have signed up at meetings with the Garden Communities team while others have been signing up to the charter digitally, through the Garden Communities pages on the council’s website.
Council Leader, Cllr Richard Stanley, said: “We’re delighted to finally be able to announce these signatories to the charter. During the pre-election period, there are rules about what we can and can’t do, and several things had to be put on hold. It’s a very encouraging step to announce the first community leaders and committed developers supporting the principles of the charter.”
The charter states that “By supporting this charter, we set our expectations of the delivery of the Garden Communities to ensure these are the priority and developers can ensure the principles are met.”
A new approach to the delivery of the Garden Communities programme was approved by Tewkesbury Borough Council in July 2023. The programme includes a commitment to increased community engagement and better collaboration with partners and developers. The charter was developed to set out the council’s expectations and aspirations for the Garden Communities. It will serve as an agreement between all parties, on the principles by which development will be guided.
Robert James, on behalf of the North Ashchurch consortium, said: “We’re pleased to support the principles set out in the Garden Communities Charter. Our vision for North Ashchurch is in harmony with the aims of the charter as it seeks to deliver a vibrant, healthy and happy place for people to live and work in this beautiful area on the edge of the Cotswolds.”
Mike Barnes, Chairman of Northway Parish Council, which neighbours the northern area of the proposed development, added: “The Northway Parish Council supports the aims and intentions of the Garden Communities Charter. It is our fervent hope that the proposed development will also give serious consideration to the wider issues (that of flooding and traffic management) both within this development and beyond.”
The nine principles in the charter are:
- Maintain existing communities alongside the development of new areas, reflecting local character.
- A strong identity and character of place.
- Interconnected water infrastructure (ponds, brooks, streams, and rivers).
- Carbon-neutral communities and building sustainably for climate resilience.
- Great green spaces for people and wildlife.
- Sustainable wider connectivity.
- Integrated live, work, play communities.
- Owned and rented homes, housing types and densities supporting diverse communities.
- Promoting community ownership and longer-term stewardship.
A copy of the charter is available to read or download here.
Coxs Brook Solar Farm – Planning Approved
Gloucestershire live News Report 25 April 2024
Plans to build a huge solar farm on a Gloucestershire floodplain have sparked fire hazard fears amid concerns “electricity and water don’t mix very well”.
Padero Solar Ltd (PS Renewables) has been granted permission to create a 16-megawatt solar farm on more than 64 acres of land west of Twigworth Court Farm off the A38 Tewkesbury Road in Twigworth.
Man Prosecuted and fined for non-compliance with planning enforcement notice
A man has been successfully prosecuted and fined for failing to comply with a planning enforcement notice relating to the opening and use of an unauthorised access on the B4077.
On the 8 January 2024, the owner of land at Warren Fruit Farm near Toddington, Mr Billy-Joe Roper, pleaded guilty at Cheltenham Magistrates Court to offences of non-compliance with an extant Enforcement Notice and a Temporary Stop Notice.
A retrospective planning application for this access was refused in August 2023 on highways safety grounds but use continued and despite multiple warnings, the access was not closed as per the requirements of the notice.
Tewkesbury Borough Council’s planning officers were eventually compelled to take direct action to close the unauthorised access in the interests of public safety.
Magistrates held that the defendant wilfully refused to do what was requested by the enforcement notice. Mr Roper was ordered to pay the borough council’s costs, a fine and a victim surcharge totalling £1,280.
Tewkesbury Borough Council’s Lead Member for Built Environment, Councillor Mary Jordan, said: “The defendant’s disregard of the enforcement notice, to prevent unauthorised access on the B4077, put the public’s safety at risk.
“This successful prosecution demonstrates the council’s commitment to planning regulation and should act as a warning to those who would choose to ignore it, as we will not hesitate to take further action through the courts.”
For more information about planning compliance, visit Planning compliance – Tewkesbury Borough Council.
laurence Robertson MP – speech in PArliament
LAURENCE ROBERTSON MP – LOCAL FLOODING SPEECH IN PARLIAMENT
Facebook Video Link to Laurence Robertson MP Speech 9 Jan 2024: https://www.facebook.com/share/v/YdJ6wfPPW82CvxXf/
The Gloucester villages experience unprecedented levels of flooding
Brook Lane, which separates the villages of Twigworth and Down Hatherley, is suffering unprecedented levels of flooding after hundreds of new houses have been built on one side of the lane – with another 160-plus houses still to come on the other side. Resident Sam Tibble has spent the last two days fighting a losing battle to keep the water out of his house. “I’ve never seen anything like this. It came nowhere near us in the floods three years ago, before all these new houses were built.”
Apart from filling Ivor Gurney’s ‘water meadows’ with concrete, bricks and tarmac, the new houses are built several feet above the existing level, on imported soil, which neighbouring residents believe puts them at extra risk.
Video 1
The flooding also causes sewage from Severn Trent’s antiquated network to revisit people’s bathrooms, front-rooms, gardens and public walkways.
Video 2
Despite this, Severn Trent Water continues to accept hundreds more houses on adjacent plots to their failed network. Their routine answer to these foul-water floods is to send in tankers to pump out the sewers, which causes inevitable smells, noise and extra traffic.
Chris Weaver is not the only local resident to hold the local council responsible for this ongoing nightmare. “Tewkesbury Borough Council does not challenge Severn Trent’s acceptance of all these new houses despite their failed network. We routinely bring it to their attention. We are routinely ignored,” says George Sharpley, a member of the local flood-risk group.
Eighty-five new houses are pencilled in for Chestnut Tree Farm (22-01343-OUT) on the other side of the A38. This is currently under appeal with the Planning Inspector. On 3rd May last year, Severn Trent admitted that they were unable to accept any new flows here “until upgrades have been delivered.” Weeks later, on 6th June, their position had changed: “We have no objections in principle to the proposals.” (Severn Trent documents are on Tewkesbury Borough Council portal – 22-01343-OUT)
Were the upgrades mentioned in May implemented? If so, what?
The following month (19th July 2023) local residents met with Matt Jeynes, a senior engineer with Severn Trent, who expressed his professional opinion that no further major developments should be added to the drainage network until a full review had been carried out and necessary improvements made.
And yet new sites continue to be waved through.
At Twigworth Green, a new pipeline was connected to take sewage away from the new houses, to avoid the current failing network. In January 2023, this new pipeline spewed hundreds of gallons of untreated sewage into the meadows along the Hatherley Brook.
Video 3
Twigworth Green is now routinely visited by tankers to relieve the new sewer.
Vistry Letter
Does Tewkesbury Borough Council think that residents of these new houses should accept as standard the inevitable smells, noise pollution and additional traffic these measures are causing?
Is it acceptable for additional sites now under proposal?
The authorities must be aware of the problems – as are residents of Twigworth and Down Hatherley who in wet periods continue to have sewage revisiting their properties and public areas.
END
George Sharpley
Twigworth and Down Hatherley Flood Rep
1st January 2024
BBC News – Link to Article
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-gloucestershire-67878138
Twigworth Parish Council Gloucestershire 
