Planning Permission
Development consent order (DCO) application
The scheme is categorised as a Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project. This means we were required to make an application for a Development Consent Order (DCO) to obtain planning permission to construct the scheme, rather than the traditional route of applying for planning permission, under the Town and Country Planning Act 1990, from the local planning authorities. Find out more about this process.
Our DCO application timeline was as follows:
- 19 December 2023: Application submitted by the council to the Planning Inspectorate.
- 16 January 2024: Application accepted for examination by the Planning Inspectorate
- 5 December 2024: Examination period closed.
- 4 March 2025: Examining authority’s recommendation was sent to the Secretary of State for Transport.
- 4 June 2025: Secretary of State for Transport grants development consent.
All of the details on our development consent order application can be found on our project page on the Planning Inspectorate website, where you can also view our development consent order documents and find out more about the application process.
Discharge of Requirements Explained
The M5 Junction 10 Development Consent Order (DCO) for the M5 Junction 10 scheme sets out a range of conditions that should be complied with before and during the delivery of the DCO works. The conditions are referred to as “Requirements” and are set out in this link. Whether or not these requirements have been complied is decided by Gloucestershire County Council’s (GCC) planning team. The process for establishing compliance with the requirements is referred to as the “discharge of requirements”. There is a consultation process for applications to discharge of requirement relevant to the M5 Junction 10 DCO, this process differs to that for planning applications submitted under the Town and Country Planning Act 1990.
Gloucestershire County Council carries out the discharge of requirement process in accordance with what is set out in the DCO, including consulting for each specific requirement. This does not require town or parish councils or adjacent/neighbouring landowners to be formally consulted; this is in the same way that the discharge of condition process under a planning application does not.
GCC are required to consult Cheltenham or Tewkesbury Borough Council concerning the discharge of certain requirements. GCC are also required to consult a range of other statutory organisations, such as National Highways (who are responsible for the M5), the Environment Agency and Historic England concerning specific requirements.
GCC receives and validates applications for discharge of requirement applications from Galliford Try Ltd, who are the main contractor for the DCO. These applications are then made available for the public to view on GCC’s Public Access Portal by searching for the reference number or by using the map search facility. All submission documents under requirements will be publicly available except where privacy reasons or confidentiality limits this. The DCO does not require site notices or other publication of specific discharge of requirement applications.
Town and parish councils or any other interested person/group can make representations on discharge of requirement applications if they choose, though they will not receive a formal consultation from GCC. This can be done through Public Access or by emailing our planning team at planningdc@gloucestershire.gov.uk. We encourage all interested parties to sign up for email alerts for the M5 Junction 10 project, this will enable us to inform you directly about applications to discharge requirements.