Rushcliffe Borough Council is preparing to take a significant procedural step in the long-running and controversial plans for a major new development east of Gamston and north of Tollerton, with councillors set to decide whether to formally adopt a detailed development framework ahead of a cabinet meeting later this month.
The East of Gamston/North of Tollerton Development Framework Supplementary Planning Document is due to be considered by cabinet on 16 January 2026, following public consultation last autumn and a series of revisions prompted by objections from residents, statutory bodies and developers. If adopted, the document would become a material consideration in determining future planning applications across the strategic allocation, which is earmarked for around 4,000 homes, employment land and supporting infrastructure.
The site was removed from the Green Belt and allocated for development more than a decade ago as part of Rushcliffe’s Local Plan Part 1: Core Strategy, adopted in December 2014. Since then, it has remained one of the most sensitive and debated development locations in the borough, largely because of its scale, proximity to existing communities in Gamston and Tollerton, its relationship with the A52, and concerns over traffic, flooding and cumulative infrastructure impacts.
Policy 25 of the Core Strategy made clear from the outset that the area was expected to come forward as a comprehensively planned scheme, with development phased alongside new infrastructure, including highway improvements and public transport provision. However, despite intermittent discussions between the council and landowners after 2014, a single coordinated planning application never materialised.
In December 2020, Taylor Wimpey and Barwood Homes submitted an outline application for up to 2,250 homes on around 42 per cent of the site, including a primary school and local centre. Rushcliffe Borough Council raised concerns at the time that the proposal risked undermining the comprehensive approach envisaged by the Local Plan.
Those concerns intensified in March 2024, when Vistry Homes submitted a hybrid planning application for around 1,600 homes on the former Tollerton airfield, which makes up roughly 40 per cent of the allocated land. Vistry had acquired the airfield in 2023 and subsequently joined the council and other landowners in working on a site-wide framework. Nottinghamshire County Council, which controls around 15 per cent of the land, has not yet submitted a planning application.
Against that backdrop, the council began preparing a development framework and masterplan in early 2021, with the aim of reasserting control over how the site comes forward and ensuring that infrastructure is planned and delivered on a coordinated basis rather than negotiated piecemeal through individual applications.
The Supplementary Planning Document does not introduce new planning policy and does not form part of the Local Plan. Instead, it provides detailed guidance on how existing policy should be applied, setting out a vision for the site, a broad land-use framework, design principles, movement and access routes, green and blue infrastructure, and a delivery strategy. Once adopted, developers would be expected to design schemes that align with the framework and contribute proportionately to shared infrastructure.
A key element of the document is its emphasis on collective delivery. The council is proposing a framework approach to Section 106 planning obligations, potentially through linked legal agreements, to ensure that all developers contribute fairly to roads, schools, green spaces and other infrastructure, regardless of which parcel of land they build on. A separate Infrastructure Delivery Plan is due to be published before planning applications are determined, setting out what infrastructure is required, when it must be delivered and how it will be funded.
Public consultation on the draft framework ran from 1 October to 5 November 2025 and generated 318 responses. Many of the objections echoed long-standing concerns raised by residents in Gamston, Tollerton and surrounding areas, particularly around traffic congestion, rat-running, and the capacity of the A52 corridor. Others questioned whether the framework should be finalised before detailed transport modelling is completed, and whether it provides sufficient certainty over the timing of new schools, road improvements and public transport.
There were also calls for stronger and more aspirational design standards, renewed arguments that the former airfield should continue operating, concerns about potential land contamination, and fears that large-scale development could exacerbate flood risk in low-lying areas, including around Cotgrave Lane and Tollerton Lane.
In response, council officers have proposed a series of revisions to the draft document. These include clearer wording that a primary pedestrian and cycle route must be provided between the new development and Gamston village, with options explicitly including either a new foot and cycle bridge over the A52 or controlled at-grade crossings. The final solution would be informed by a formal crossing options analysis as part of future transport assessments.
Changes have also been made to better explain how infrastructure contributions will be secured, to reflect the county council’s preference for developers to directly deliver certain off-site highway works, and to acknowledge that the Tollerton Neighbourhood Plan, adopted in February 2025, now forms part of the development plan for the area. Technical corrections have also been made to ensure the correct location of the proposed gypsy and traveller site ( planning policy is that appropriate provision should be made for Gypsy and Traveller accommodation ).
To provide homes for all, the site is required to provide a site for gypsy and traveller pitches to help meet identified needs. Provision should be a site of the provision of 8 serviced pitches with any appropriate facilities.
Officers have rejected calls to delay adoption of the framework until all transport work is complete, arguing that doing so would risk further delay to housing delivery and weaken the council’s position if developers appeal against non-determination of current applications. They also warn that missing a 30 June 2026 deadline could force the council to prepare the document as a Supplementary Plan instead, triggering a public examination and adding months to the process.
The cabinet report stresses that issues such as contamination, detailed flood mitigation and site-specific transport impacts are matters for individual planning applications, not the framework itself. However, it argues that without an adopted framework in place, Rushcliffe would be less able to ensure that development is coordinated, infrastructure is delivered on time and design quality is maintained across what is one of the largest proposed growth areas in the borough.
If approved, the Development Framework SPD would mark a formal attempt to bring structure and certainty to a site that has been allocated for growth since 2014 but has yet to deliver the homes and employment land envisaged. The decision will be closely watched by local communities, developers and neighbouring authorities, as the future of the Gamston and Tollerton area moves closer to a series of decisive planning determinations.
The document recommends that Cabinet approves the proposed revisions.
