One of the reasons Ashford Borough Council achieved Beacon status in planning for sustainable communities was its pioneering work on Community design workshops. The Borough Council initially partnered with the Princes Foundation, English Partnerships and The Campaign to Protect Rural England to pilot the design workshops. Depending on the site - its size and complexity workshops last between 1 and 3 days. 

The Design workshop process brings people from many different perspectives together to work towards consensus around key principles of making better places and communities. This process ensures that residents, councillor's, amenity groups, landowners / developers, service providers and other stakeholders are all part of the design process from the outset.

As a Beacon Council we are committed to sharing our experiences. The 'Toolkit' below has been put together to show how Ashford Borough Council's approach to involving the community in the planning design process.

The toolkit below is not designed to cover all options but will hopefully be a useful guide to adapt to your purposes.

Organising The Event

• The first step in organising not just workshops, but any event is to draw up an Attendee List 12Kb PDF with Invitation Letters 15Kb PDF sent to all relevant parties / persons who may have an active interest in the development site. Typically around 60-70 people are involved, including a cross section of the local people.
• Before the event an agenda is circulated and an introductory session is held with those new to the process to raise awareness of urban design. An Event Planning and Management Checklist 38Kb PDF is a useful way to make sure you don't miss anything important!

During The Event

• The actual workshops brought interests from many different perspectives together to work towards consensus around key principles of making better places and communities.
• Ashford injected independent, experts to 'challenge' conventional wisdom and to show new ways of designing places. An independent facilitator will be needed to run proceedings.
• An Agenda 28Kb PDF should be written so the event runs as smoothly as possible.
• The event starts with an Introductory Presentation with an overview of the day. Later people divide into organised groups for the days workshops. Groups should have at least one facilitator to answer questions and clarify points. These can be reorganised for workshops later in the event to combine people of different interests so that as wide a debate as possible takes place. 
• Typically themes include movement and transport, open space, economy, design and character.
• Groups required to come up with a series of key issues that needed to be dealt with and specific proposals on how to resolve them.  We got people involved in this by playing the Strategic Growth Model Game 251Kb PDF.
• All comments must be captured and recorded (see below).
• A Feedback Comment Sheet 28Kb PDF must be provided to test how effective the event has been for participants. The results should be summarised.

After The Event

• Immediate feedback 52Kb PDF to the local community can be very powerful - an evening surgery open to all helps to spread the conclusions and ideas.
• A full workshop report 5.91Mb PDF of all comments and proposed responses is produced by the developer team and cleared beforehand by the event facilitator and local authority.
• The workshop outputs often feed directly into development briefs 6.87Mb PDF or planning applications. Follow up consultation events and mini workshops at later stages help to increase confidence that initial workshop ideas have been followed through. People can then see that their input has helped to shape what is being built.