Ashford is a fast growing town, facing all the challenges and problems this entails. When the Government decided that the town should be a regional growth area – doubling the population in 25 years - the challenge got even harder!

• There are several features that are central to our approach – whatever level of growth you face they are relevant:
• Leadership and a partnership approach that has inspired our partners, politicians and the community
• Genuinely inclusive and innovative participation to tackle challenges from individual sites to doubling the size of the town
• Sticking to the agenda to create a high quality, sustainable community through each stage of the process

Ashford is keen to share its experience in promoting sustainable communities. Using the links below you can find out more about masterplanning and community design workshops.

Better Place-making

Working with the Princes Foundation, English Partnerships and CPRE we piloted the design workshop – an intensive workshop, often spanning 2 or more days, involving residents and stakeholders from all sectors.

The objective was simple – a determination to go back to first principles about what makes places work; gain wide agreement to those principles and what they mean in practice; and get the commitment needed from agencies of all sorts to play their part in delivering better places.

The outcomes have been startling. There is widespread consensus and shared understanding between developers and landowners; local communities and politicians; and service providers of all sorts about how to make better places and stronger communities.

Since 2001 we have taken all major schemes in Ashford through design workshops. Feedback has been overwhelmingly positive; all parties have been ‘winners’; the process of handling major development is much improved and, crucially, the results are much better places to live and work in.

So successful was this approach that we decided to use it to masterplan a doubling of the size of the town over 25 years – then the fun really began!

Sharing our Experience

As a Beacon Council we are committed to sharing our experiences. We will tailor what we can offer to what you feel you need but there are two main areas where we are most likely to be able to help; tackling your growth agenda and creating better places using design workshops.

Tackling your growth agenda – how to embrace a growth agenda working with local politicians and the community

Target Groups:

• Chief Executives, management teams, leading councillors, LSP members and other community representatives in areas facing challenging growth targets.

What We Can Offer: 

• Tailored day workshops for small groups to an agenda of issues most relevant to you -workshops based in London, Ashford or your home authority;
• Follow up mentoring relationship to share experience and learn together with selected authorities – establishment of a peer exchange network.

Creating better places using design workshops - by making the community and all stakeholders part of the design process from the outset on key sites and masterplans

Target Groups:

• Planners, urban designers, housing and related professionals
• Lead planning councillors
• LSP members, amenity groups, voluntary sector and parish/ town councils
• Landowners/ developers and house-builders
• Public agencies and service providers

What We Can Offer: 

• Intensive day workshops for small groups from interested local authorities (including where appropriate community partners and developers);
• Web based, self-help pack for those wanting to roll out the design workshop approach;
• Speakers for events targeting the house-building/ development industry;
• Follow up mentoring relationship with selected authorities – possible establishment of ‘facilitator exchange’ scheme

Further Information

If you are a...

• Planner, urban designer, housing and related professional                                                    
• Lead planning councillor
• LSP member, amenity group, voluntary sector and parish / town council
• Landowner / developer and house builder
• Public agency and service provider

You may find our Masterplanning Ashford's Growth webpage and Toolkit for community design workshops useful.   

You can also visit the following websites:

• Beacon Website 
• IDEA Sustainable Communities

You can also email the Head of Planning and Development or telephone 01233 330239.