Crunch date set to determine future of £100m regeneration project

The future of a £100 million redevelopment project in Gloucestershire will be decided at a meeting next week and exploring a new direction for a planned major road is being considered.

Forest of Dean District Council’s review of the Cinderford Northern Quarter regeneration project is due to conclude on March 7.

The redevelopment had originally been designed to bring 1,200 jobs, 195 homes and a new college campus.

The first stage of the project, which includes the first phase of a new road and a new campus for Gloucestershire College, was completed in 2018, but construction work for the second phase has not yet begun.

A scrutiny inquiry into the scheme was launched in 2021 and now the committee has come up with a set of recommendations.

Regarding the completion of the proposed spine road which would link to the A4136, they recommend getting up to date cost estimates for the road’s second phase and conduct a viability study and cost-benefit analysis based on these.

The council could also open formal discussions with Forestry England, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and other relevant agencies to establish if an alternative route for the spine road through Hawkwell Inclosure is an available option.

Councillors will also consider alternative allocations and plot uses for the development site and the potential relocation of Steam Mills Primary School.

Cinderford St John’s Cricket Club could be relocated to the school site and Steam Mills recreation ground, alongside the bowling club which council chiefs say would unlock the current cricket club site for employment use given its Forest Vale Industrial Estate location.

The creation of a visitor eco-centre and residential development at the Northern Quarter site is also being considered.

Council officers say if no opportunity presents itself to relocate Steam Mills Primary School, the authority should lobby for a permanently reduced speed limit along the A4151 in Steam Mills.

Councillors on the strategic overview and scrutiny committee are due to consider the findings of the inquiry at a meeting in Coleford.

The recommendations they approve will then need to be considered by cabinet at a future date.

History of the Cinderford Northern Quarter

Originally labelled as the Northern Arc, the Cinderford Northern Quarter is a brownfield strategic regeneration project that was first identified and promoted as a redevelopment opportunity by the South West Regional Development Agency (SWRDA) and was to be funded under the National Coalfields Programme.

This programme was designed to revive deprived former coalfield communities such as Cinderford and help make them more attractive places to live and work. Homes and Communities Agency (now Homes England) replaced SWRDA, and in 2009, investment funding from the coalfields programme was approved.

A masterplan for an education and employment-led mixed use development was prepared for inclusion in a Cinderford Northern Quarter area action plan. This was formally adopted in February 2012. But the project was hindered by legal challenges by Forest of Dean Friends of the Earth which queried the council’s core strategy and Cinderford Northern Quarter area action plan.

The case was dismissed by the High Court in June 2013. But Forest of Dean Friends of the Earth also challenged the Cinderford Northern Quarter masterplan and design codes. The High Court refused permission to hear the case in February 2014. And the core strategy and area action plan was taken to the Court of Appeal in March that year, but the appeal failed.

The council says the area action plan was further progressed through a hybrid planning application submitted in April 2014, which was accompanied by an environmental statement. Forest of Dean Friends of the Earth challenged this application in the High Court, but the challenge failed.

Plans to build the spine road and a new college and outline planning permission for nearby development plots were granted permission in February 2015. And the first phase of the spine road and the college was completed in September 2018.

Having been partly implemented, the planning permission remains valid for the second phase of the road and for housing and employment. Since the hybrid planning permission, there have been 22 related applications, all granted consent which relate to non-material amendments to the approved development or the discharge, variation, or removal of conditions.

In April 2021, two planning applications were submitted by the council which they say will allow the delivery of further phases of development. One seeks to implement a further length of the spine road and allow the development of further plots.

The second application makes no alterations to the original application but seeks to amend the approved phasing of development, specifically focusing on allowing the delivery of Plots C for a hotel, D for employment space and G to provide housing, but ahead of completion of phase 2a of the spine road.

In the original proposals, no further development is permitted until the spine road is completed. If the planning application is granted permission, it would allow development of the central plots to go ahead without the whole of the spine road being built.

These two proposals prompted council leader Tim Gwilliam (Progressive Independents, Berry Hill) to conduct a full and public review into the policies surrounding the Cinderford Northern Quarter, according to the report. This is so that its results could be shared with council leaders for the purpose of integrating them into the new Local Plan process, which started in 2019.

As a result, in July 2021, the strategic overview and scrutiny committee decided to set up a scrutiny inquiry into the policies of the Cinderford Northern Quarter. The recommendations from that review will be considered by the cabinet once it has concluded.

All work on considering the planning applications submitted for the site in April 2021 has been put on hold while the scrutiny inquiry is underway.