Green light for Cheltenham headquarters

Endsleigh Insurance has finally been given permission by Tewkesbury Borough Council to build a œ15 million headquarters and sports complex near Cheltenham.

The full scheme includes office buildings, a sports complex, tennis courts, two football pitches and a wildlife habitat area.

The scheme, on the former Marley factory site at Little Shurdington, ran into planning trouble as it stands in an area of outstanding natural beauty. The main environmental problem was the future of a pool, home to rare great crested newts, which would have been disturbed by a sports pavilion.

The site of the pavilion has now been moved back and will not be built for four years. The rest of the complex is to be phased in slowly to protect the various forms of wildlife.