JCS Review frequently asked questions

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The Gloucester, Cheltenham and Tewkesbury (GCT) Joint Core Strategy (JCS) partnership was formed in March 2008 when Gloucester City Council, Cheltenham Borough Council and Tewkesbury Borough Council, with input from Gloucestershire County Council, decided to produce a JCS.

Producing a JCS has several advantages. In particular, it makes it easier to deal with issues that affect all three areas and take a consistent approach to new development. Producing a joint strategy is also in line with national policy.

Since the JCS was adopted in December 2017, the partnership has continued to work together, producing the JCS and then starting work on its review. As part of this, the JCS partnership is also working closely with Gloucestershire County Council on major issues such as transport.

To produce the JCS Review successfully, there needs to be a clear management ‘chain of command’ in place for overseeing decisions. Statutory bodies, local strategic partnerships and Members elected from the three partnership authorities are all represented within the governance structure. You can find out more here: JCS management structure.

The 2004 Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act introduced a system for preparing plans called the Local Development Framework (LDF). The LDF is a set of documents on planning policy that make up the plan for developing an area, and all local authorities are required to prepare one. You can find out more about the LDF system on the Planning Portal website.

A core strategy is the most important part of the Local Development Framework and all other planning policy documents must comply with it. It identifies the major, long-term issues that are most important to the local area and then works out a strategy for dealing with them. Examples include how to provide more affordable housing, reduce traffic congestion and tackling climate change.

To be effective, plans need to be kept up-to-date. The National Planning Policy Framework and under Regulation 10A of The Town and Country Planning (Local Planning) (England) Regulations 2012 (as amended) local planning authorities must review local plans and their Statement of Community Involvement at least once every five years from the date they were adopted. This is to ensure that their policies are still relevant and are based on the needs of the local community. Reviews should be in keeping with the importance of the issues they relate to.

No. The Gloucester Cheltenham Tewkesbury Joint Core Strategy partnership is responsible for producing a long-term plan for the area - the Joint Core Strategy and its review. The individual local authorities will be responsible for all other planning policy documents that deal with issues relating solely to their own area. You can find out which planning policy documents each of the individual local authorities will produce by looking at their local development schemes, which can be found on their websites.

It is very important to the Joint Core Strategy (JCS) Team that everyone is given the opportunity to influence the JCS Review. You can contact the JCS Team at any time using the contact us function. Alternatively, the respective consultation section on the website has details of all the ways in which the JCS Team will contact key partners, members of the public and other interested parties during the production of the JCS Review.

Gloucester City Council and Cheltenham and Tewkesbury Borough Councils have adopted Statements of Community Involvement. The JCS Team has produced a consultation statement which sets out how the JCS process will meet their requirements.

Once the JCS Review has been adopted, it will replace the currently Adopted JCS. Together with any saved local plan policies that are still valid and any other individually adopted Development Plan Documents, including made neighbourhood plans these will form the development plan for the area covered by the three authorities.