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Once contacts had been established between GCHQ and Cheltenham
Town Council it became clear that the apparently empty spaces around Benhall
were earmarked as part of the Hester's Way development, and were not
available for GCHQ aerials. The idea of moving radio stations to Cheltenham
was soon abandoned.
House building, 1951-1952
Most work for the next 18 months was concerned with negotiating the building
by the Council (the main contractor was Wimpeys) of what eventually became
440 houses (326 of them built using "non-traditional" methods involving
prefabrication and/or "no-fines" concrete construction) and some 472 flats,
in the overall Hester's Way development; in addition 56 "managerial" houses
were built by the Council.
Work on the main housing contracts began in August 1951, and the first
houses were ready for handover a year later, when the main move of GCHQ
staff from Eastcote to Cheltenham began. Relations with the Town Council
were not always smooth. Council officials and central Ministries took care
to ensure that the local labour market was not distorted by the need to
work on what became known as the Foreign Office programme but some people
felt that the GCHQ Civil Servants were incomers getting preferential treatment.
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