Latest news with #AlishaLewis
BBC News
02-07-2025
- Business
- BBC News
Cheltenham housing development to 'breathe life' into town
A sum of £2.8m has been earmarked to "breathe life" into a residential area through 24 new homes, a council has England has approved the funds for contractors Speller Metcalfe to build 17 apartments and seven houses at 320 Swindon Road in Cheltenham, the borough council said. The development will also include green outdoor spaces and sustainability features, such as solar panels and green roofs."This is a great milestone and a wonderful opportunity to bring a former disused brownfield site back to life," said Alisha Lewis, cabinet member for major developments and housing delivery. Cheltenham Borough Council said the project marked "a significant step forward" in its plans to bring more affordable housing to the homes will be available through social rent and shared ownership and construction work is scheduled to begin this Lewis said: "The £2.8m of funding that's been approved is a significant addition to our investment in housing in Cheltenham. "This is one of many major projects for the borough that we're working on to provide much needed housing to people, whether they are on a waiting list or have been struggling to get on the ladder, everyone deserves a place they can call home." In the green spaces, room has been made available for hedgehog highways and bat, bee, and bird Eaton, divisional director at Speller Metcalfe, said it was looking forward to getting the project under way later this year. "As a contractor with strong regional roots, we know how important developments like this are in supporting local communities - creating high-quality housing while promoting greener, healthier neighbourhoods," he said.
BBC News
13-06-2025
- Automotive
- BBC News
Businesses welcome changes to Cheltenham motorway junction
Businesses close to a motorway junction, which is being upgraded to having full access in both directions, are welcoming the £229m Secretary of State for Transport gave approval for the project at the start of June, with work due to start in early will allow traffic to join and leave the M5 in Gloucestershire at junction 10 both northbound and Powell from Elmwick Camping said her customers have to make the journey to them "through an awful lot of traffic" because they can't currently rejoin the motorway where they left it. She added visitors coming from the north will most appreciate the improvements to the junction."Getting off at Junction 10 is really easy for them."But when they want to go southbound they have to either drive back up to Tewkesbury to Junction 9 and then turn around, or go down to Junction 11 [through Cheltenham]."Michael Cassidy, director of nearby brewery Clavell and Hind, says there will be short-term pain for long-term gain."We feel it will be a good thing for our business in the long run," he said."It will help transport links into the local area. Obviously there will be some short term disruption but we're quite positive about it. The roads around here definitely need some improvement."As well as the motorway junction upgrade, the scheme also includes widening the A4019 Tewkesbury Road, and a new link road connecting the A4019 to the B4634 in west Borough Councillor Alisha Lewis says this is vital for the 5,000 new houses that are due to built in the area."We mustn't just think about the residents who currently live in Cheltenham but all the residents who will move into and become residents of Cheltenham, like the Golden Valley development."It is a fantastic new neighbourhood with great new homes, great new schools and great new facilities, but without the transport infrastructure it simply wouldn't work."Junction 10 is a big part of the puzzle," he Charmaine Smith, the owner of the Uckington Layby J10 breakfast van, says the scheme will mean the end of her business, which she has run with her husband for more than a decade."It's our livelihood. It's how we pay our mortgage," she said."To be just suddenly told one day it's going to go, we can't just close the business down and go elsewhere. We've been here for the last 14 years and built up a customer base."Public information events are set to be held during the summer, with construction getting underway from spring 2026. Completion, the council said, is expected in 2028.
