A BLUEPRINT for future development in the Cotswolds over the next five years has won Government approval.

Planning chiefs have been working on the Local Plan - which sets out exactly where future building projects can take place - since 2000.

The plan has caused controversy in a number of areas and objectors have spoken out against some of the proposals.

But an inspector's report into the district council-prepared plan, which runs until 2011, is widely supportive of the schemes put forward by the authority.

And planning chiefs say they are looking forward to carrying the sites outlined in the document forward for development.

CDC's forward planning manager Chris Vickery said: "We're delighted with it. This secures the future of the Cotswolds. Planning is about facilitating acceptable development, not stopping it.

"We were situated somewhere between the conservation lobby and the developers but even the Greenfield sites we put forward have been endorsed too."

The Local Plan is a definitive guide as to where future development is acceptable and is used by local authorities when considering planning applications.

Virtually all the proposed sites outlined in the plan received support from the Inspector, who agreed that most development should be directed towards Cirencester and, to a lesser extent, some of the district's other larger market towns.

Key approved areas in the plan (some residential, some employment, some mixed) include:

o Cirencester - Kingshill (North and South); Cirencester Cattle Market/leisure centre; Sheep Street island; Memorial Hospital; Dyer Street/Waterloo and Cricklade Street/West Way.

Brownfield sites allocated for redevelopment in the town include land around the Territorial Army headquarters in Somerford Road; the former hotel site on Lewis Lane, a site adjoining 19a London Road and the Countrywide Stores site at Stratton.

o Tetbury - Mixed use at Matbro; Hampton Street allotments, although 50 percent of allotments will be retained; and land adjacent to Tetbury Industrial Estate.

o Lechlade - Riverside; Old Station; and the St John' Street car park and town cemetery schemes.

o Bourton-on-the-Water - Land east of the Coach and Horses and the British Legion site.

o Moreton-in-Marsh - Cotswold Business Village.