Garden CommunitiesEngagement

Youth Engagement 

What’s Been Done So Far? 

The Tewkesbury Garden Communities team has worked with schools, youth groups, and local organisations to hear young voices. Some early projects included: 

• Design Lab at Tewkesbury school – Students made models of houses, parks, and transport ideas using cardboard. 

• Family day – Over 240 people joined fun activities like drawing and storytelling to share their ideas. 

• Youth board plans – The team wanted a youth board, but young people preferred creative sessions instead of formal meetings. 

Young Gloucestershire helped reach young people who face challenges like mental health issues or lack of education. They ran workshops with schools and groups such as the Youth Climate Group and Tewkesbury Nature Reserve. Ideas were collected through surveys, art, and mentoring. 

Recent Activities 

In summer 2025, the team worked with Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire Community Rail Partnership (GOCRP) to run family-friendly events. People talked about green transport, parks, and what matters most to them. One result was an “access map” showing how to move around the area easily. 

The team also partnered with the University of Gloucestershire. Students helped with planning and will design parts of the area as part of their studies. 

Working with the University of Gloucestershire 

The team is working with the University of Gloucestershire to bring fresh ideas and expert knowledge into the project. This partnership is exciting because it gives students real-life experience while helping shape Tewkesbury’s future. 

• Student Placements – One student joined the team for work experience. They helped with planning and community events, learning new skills and sharing creative ideas for the area. 

• Planning Projects – University students are now working on a big challenge: designing parts of the Garden Communities as part of their course. For example, they will create plans for the area around the church by the end of 2025. 

• Sharing Knowledge – The team and university staff meet to swap ideas. This means students learn from real projects, and the team gets fresh thinking from future planners. 

This partnership is just the beginning. The plan is to keep working with new groups of students every year and even set up a regular student board to share ideas. Other garden communities have done this successfully, so Tewkesbury is following a proven path. 

Why It Matters 

Tewkesbury Garden Communities isn’t just about building houses. It’s about creating places where young people feel heard and involved. By listening to their ideas, Tewkesbury can grow into a community that is safe, green, and full of life. 

Public Events

Progress Report

Garden Communities progress report events review 

Having reflected on the progress made during 2024, the Garden Communities team published a progress report and held two public events where they presented the work and answered questions from residents.  

The structure 

The events were structured with two distinct parts. A presentation from the team started the sessions  while the second half was an informal Q&A, similar to the consultation events, where attendees were able to have direct conversations with the team and guests representing developers and our governance structure.  

Each event opened with a message from the leader of Tewkesbury Borough Council, Richard Stanley.

What was on the agenda?  

For the team, it was about making clear what’s been done and what is coming up on six key subject areas:  

• The opportunity
• Current pipeline 
• Transport 
• Political landscape 
• Delivery 
• Stewardship 

You can read all about the content the team delivered in the progress report, here.

The slides which the team used to deliver their presentation can also be viewed, here: Garden Communities Progress Report Slides

The questions 

Attendees were given the opportunity to submit questions in advance, as well as to ask queries to the team during the events. A summary of the most asked questions can be seen below.  

Will any of the surrounding infrastructure be improved or built before the development starts? 

Some changes have already begun, for example there have been changes made to the A46 at the motorway roundabout to accommodate Dobbies and the Fiddington housing sites that are already under way. Bus stops and flood mitigation infrastructure have also been installed in those areas while negotiations are ongoing with bus service providers.  

Other infrastructure will be delivered alongside development, like schools and leisure facilities. The main issue residents wanted to talk about was the A46. Gloucestershire County Council and National Highways are working on a new route for the A46 taking it away from its present route and linking to a brand-new junction on the motorway further south of Junction 9.  

This initiative has received another £1m of funding announced in March 2025. The overall cost of the new road is likely to be well in excess of £500m and will be funded by central government. This will take time, but the ambition is to be part of National Highways Roads Investment Strategy 4 pipeline of schemes to be built between 2030 and 2035. 

When will we be able to see detailed designs for the bridge over the railway line, including where exactly this is to be built? 

The proposed location of the bridge hasn’t changed – this is set for us by Network Rail as they have a number of safety considerations that must be complied with, such as sight lines for drivers. The proposed site is a little way north of the existing homes in Northway.As for the design, the North Ashchurch Consortium has recently unveiled some new concept images of the bridge in situ with homes, trees and footpaths all included. They can be viewed on their consultation portal here: North Ashchurch Garden Communities ENGAGEMENT SITE  

The consortium is doing this work because the judicial review on the bridge required a full environmental impact assessment, which can only be completed once the total number of homes, the route of the road, known as Main Street, and more are known.  

The consortium will therefore include the bridge as part of their masterplan and submit a detailed planning application for it and Main Street. They will seek to outline planning permission for housing, schools, shops and more, and bring details forward as part of reserved matters applications in future.  

Once approved, the bridge will then be constructed by Tewkesbury Borough Council with funding from central government sources. The cost of this will then be recouped from the developers in what is known as a ‘roof tax’. A roof tax is a fee levied on new homes and buildings once they are completed and sold in order that the up-front costs for infrastructure are spread out across a development’s timeline.  

Has consideration been given to creating a roundabout at the junction of Northway Lane and the park? 

Yes. Solutions like this, and others like the sequencing of traffic lights to improve traffic flow on the A46, are all being considered as part of a sophisticated traffic modelling study currently underway. The all-new computer model, created by county’s highways team, takes in a huge amount of data gathered and can evaluate the impact of proposed changes before they are approved. The data sets used are so vast that running the model takes up to three weeks, so the process cannot be rushed.  

The Northern Area Masterplan being developed will not only look at the land being developed, but also at the wider traffic routes across the area. The details will then be published in the planning application, and these will then be scrutinised further by the Highways authorities. 

Will there be better bus services provided as properties are built? 

Sustainable and active transport routes will all form part of the planning applications and bus routes will form part of that. We don’t, however, own the bus companies and we cannot force them to operate new routes. It is highly likely that in their negotiations, bus companies and developers will agree on the nature of the bus stops etc. and at what point services will begin. This is often decided upon by looking at the number of homes that are occupied.  

The Garden Communities team is working with all parties to have a joined-up approach, where an easily navigable route is created across all developments to ensure that it easy for residents to plan their journeys and for bus operators to run a smooth service.  

What long-term provision is in place to develop community integration with the existing population? 

This question links into another topic, that of stewardship – a key principle in the Garden Communities Charter. This is a current issue for residents in new homes as well as those in existing conurbations. The solution is, in part, down to the co-use of shared services and community facilities and down to the preparedness of each community to welcome and accept the others. Parish councils and other community groups have a role to play. Find out more about our stewardship aspirations here: The Charter – Tewkesbury Borough Council

Engagement Hub

Keep in touch

We’ve created a brand new page which enables you to keep in touch with all our events, questionnaires and surveys where you can have your say on all things Garden Communities. This new page will continue to evolve as more content is created and more and more things are added. We’ll be posting our feedback and findings there too so you can see, for example, what the findings of a survey was or when the next event is being held.

Head over to the new pages – click here.

You are invited to sign the new Tewkesbury Garden Communities Charter

A charter has been developed to set out stakeholders’ expectations for the delivery of Tewkesbury Garden Communities.

Between December 2023 and January 2024 stakeholders were invited to provide feedback on the content and design, and to offer suggestions for how it can best reflect expectations.

The charter sets out the garden communities ambitions and was adopted by the Council on 27 February 2024. Stakeholders are now being invited to sign the charter as part of a joined-up approach to the delivery of the programme.

The charter can be viewed here.

To sign the charter, please contact us via the online form or via email.

Tewkesbury Garden Communities Governance Review

Following a review of the Tewkesbury Garden Communities programme, a new governance model was introduced in October 2023.

We are now carrying out a review of the model, to understand if it is being effective and to identify areas for improvement or change.

A questionnaire was developed for open consultation with everyone that had have been involved in the governance meetings. The questionnaire closed on Friday 31 May.

Our thanks to all of you who  submitted a response. A report with findings and recommendations will be presented back to the governance boards for agreement.

Engagement

Cratus, a specialist consultancy with expertise in planning, communications, community engagement and advisory support for local councils, was appointed in August 2023 to work in partnership with us on the delivery of an engagement course and development of an ongoing community engagement strategy and framework. As part of the engagement sessions and wider work a charter will be produced to reflect the new approach and set expectations for the delivery of the garden communities programme.

Cratus has commenced this work by establishing a comprehensive stakeholder list identifying key parish councils and community groups as well as businesses and developers.

The work Cratus is undertaking is split into four phases.

1. Establish a definitive background to engagement work already undertaken for the garden communities programme.
2. Deliver a series of workshops to agree an updated vision, identity and narrative, supported and co-created by all current stakeholders. This will support the formation of the charter.
3. Devise and agree a stakeholder framework for delivery of the garden town.
4. Produce an integrated stakeholder and community engagement strategy for Tewkesbury Borough Council for the delivery of the garden town.