Gloucestershire proposes 40mph and 50mph on 2,420m of the A40 at Charlton Kings after 17 injury collisions in five years. Comments close 11 September.
Gloucestershire County Council wants to end the national speed limit on the A40 east of Charlton Kings. It has published a draft order introducing a 40mph limit over 1,420 metres and a 50mph limit over a further 1,000 metres. Objections, and messages of support, close at noon on Friday 11 September 2026.
The council gives a specific reason for acting here first. Its statement of reasons records 17 personal injury or fatal collisions along this stretch of the A40 London Road in the last five years.
What is proposed
The draft order sets out two lengths of road:
- 40mph on London Road (A40), from about 70 metres south-east of the junction with Woodgate Close, running south-east for about 1,420 metres to a point about 140 metres east of the junction with the Cotswold Way.
- 50mph on the A40, known in part as London Road and in part as Cheltenham Road, from that point north-east for about 1,000 metres to about 80 metres north-east of the junction with the road to Coach House Farm.
Together that is roughly 2,420 metres, crossing the boundary between the parish of Charlton Kings in Cheltenham borough and the parish of Dowdeswell in the Cotswolds. The council describes the stretch as being under the national speed limit at present.
Why the council is proposing it separately
This piece of the A40 also sits inside the county’s Safer Roads and Community 20s programme for Cheltenham, which went out to informal engagement earlier this year. That engagement is now closed.
The council has decided not to wait for it. Because of the 17 recorded collisions, it says it is “giving priority to this location and proposing this Traffic Order separately”. Comments already made through the Safer Roads and Community 20s engagement that fall inside this scheme’s boundary will still be considered when the traffic order is decided.
The wider programme is a four-year, phased scheme. Cabinet agreed on 18 March 2026 to begin early engagement on the first locations, which in Cheltenham cover Swindon Village, Leckhampton with Warden Hill, Prestbury, Charlton Kings and Up Hatherley.
What the speed surveys showed
The council measured 85th percentile speeds on the stretch, the speed at or below which 85 in every 100 drivers travel. It reports that the figures came in within or close to the guideline levels at which a new limit is considered appropriate: 46mph for a 40mph limit and 57mph for a 50mph limit.
There is a caveat in the council’s own document, and it is worth reading. Those surveys were taken where the road is currently signed as national speed limit. The council expects speeds to fall further once a lower limit is signed and additional engineering measures go in.
One change has already been made before the formal consultation. After feedback from statutory consultees, which include the police, the emergency services, the Freight Transport Association, the Road Haulage Association, the parish council and the county councillor, the 40mph length was extended to take in the Cotswold Way crossing.
A second Cheltenham road safety proposal closes the same day
The council is also consulting on a zebra crossing on Church Road, Leckhampton, about 23 metres south-west of the junction with Hall Road, near Leckhampton C of E Primary School.
Its statement of reasons says there are no controlled crossings in that area at all, so people cross on gaps in the traffic, which it calls challenging for vulnerable road users at peak times. Pedestrian numbers rise sharply at school drop-off and pick-up. The council says the proposed position follows the main pedestrian desire line, and that the request came from residents, the school, ward councillors and parish council members.
What it means for you
Both proposals are at the formal stage, so anything you send now is a legal representation the decision maker has to consider. Neither is a done deal, and support counts as well as objection.
- A40 speed limits: write to ADL Traffic and Highways Ltd, ADL House, Oaklands Business Park, Armstrong Way, Yate, BS37 5NA, or email info@adltraffic.co.uk, quoting 5227/131, by noon on 11 September 2026.
- Church Road zebra crossing: write to the Assistant Director of Legal Services, Shire Hall, Westgate Street, Gloucester, GL1 2TG, or email highwayconsult@gloucestershire.gov.uk, quoting CB89802, by 11 September 2026.
Comments cannot be treated as confidential. Paper copies of the A40 documents can be seen at Charlton Kings Library on Church Street, and the Church Road documents at Up Hatherley Library on Hulbert Crescent, during normal opening hours. Both sets are online on the county council’s Cheltenham traffic regulation orders page.
If the order is made, it will change how the A40 drives on the run out of Charlton Kings towards Andoversford and Oxford, one of the four trunk approaches covered on our Cheltenham roadworks and travel page.
Sources
- Gloucestershire County Council, statement of reasons, proposed 40 and 50mph speed limits, A40 London Road and Cheltenham Road for the collision figure, the 85th percentile speed data and the consultee change.
- Gloucestershire County Council, draft order 5227/131 for the two schedules and their extents.
- Gloucestershire County Council, Cheltenham traffic regulation orders and traffic schemes for the consultation deadlines and reference numbers.
- Gloucestershire County Council, Safer Roads and Community 20s: locations and have your say for the Cabinet date, the Cheltenham areas and the closed engagement.
- Gloucestershire County Council, statement of reasons, proposed zebra crossing, Church Road, Leckhampton.
- Statutory notices dated 20 August 2026, published in the Gloucestershire Echo and carried on the Public Notice Portal.
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