What was the brief?
East Suffolk Council is leading the masterplanning process for a new leisure-led garden neighbourhood to the north of Felixstowe. The project brings together all three landowners focused around the principles of a safe, inclusive community which is integrated with the existing town and surrounding countryside through enhanced connectivity and green infrastructure networks.
East Suffolk Council sought to create an interactive online hub which would assist with gathering ideas and aspirations for the new garden neighbourhood, as well as facilitate a two-way dialogue with a newly established Stakeholder Forum and a Citizens' Panel for the new community.
What did we do?
Participatr was commissioned by East Suffolk Council to create an interactive digital hub, which would initially integrate basic branding which would eventually evolve to reflect the changing identity of the project.
Initial engagement focused around on interactive map, which highlight key elements of community infrastructure and 'points of interest' in the local area, inviting visitors to 'drop a pin' and highlight things that they like, ideas and things that they dislike in the wider area. This exercise allowed the masterplanning team to understand specific relevant issues in the local area, as well as broad community aspirations for the wider locality.
The East Suffolk Council team used the platform's in-built 'Project team response' feature to respond to each of the comments posted on the interactive map, explaining how they have been considered in the masterplanning process.
Alongside the 'drop a pin' engagement exercise, the Council invited expressions of interest in joining a Stakeholder Forum and Citizens' Panel, and the platform was used to gather data and process the applications of potential participants. Since the initial engagement and 'expression of interest' phases, the platform has evolved to provide downloadable minutes and agendas from the sessions that have taken place, as well as wider updates on the progress of the project.
What was the outcome?
- The platform has been visited by nearly 8,000 people, 65% of which visited using a mobile device
- 148 place-based comments were made on the interactive map, which 57 'likes' on posts that others had made
- 84 expressions of inetrest in joining the Citizens' Panel'were received and processed through the website
- 816 emails have been captured and logged automatically using the Participatr stakeholder CRM, linked to a dedicated project email address set up by Participatr
The North Felixstowe Garden Neighbourhood platform - click to enlarge