West Northamptonshire Council has been shortlisted for the Community Engagement award as part of the annual National Building and Construction Awards in recognition of their use of extensive and innovative community involvement and focus on the value of local opinions as part of the Greyfriars Masterplan consultation.
As the only Council shortlisted for this industry award, which celebrates excellence across construction and building, WNC is paving the way for community engagement in shaping transformational regeneration schemes.
Through their ambitions to repurpose the 15-acreGreyfriars site, which has been derelict since the year 2015, the Council’s vision sets out their ambitions to transform it into a new vibrant neighbourhood, which can revitalise the town centre and act as a catalyst for the infusion of new life into Northampton.
The proposals have been crafted by a multi-disciplinary team led by Studio Egret West, who have been commissioned by West Northamptonshire Council to create the vision for the area. This team comprises urban designers, architects, landscape architects, and transport, commercial and sustainability experts. The community engagement and digital consultation platform were led by specialists Deetu, part of BWB Consulting.
The Greyfriars consultation has allowed the council to be shortlisted for this award due to the fact that their bright vision for the Greyfriars area being an opportunity to drive positive change across the town of Northampton would not have been possible without involvement and engagement from the town’s lively and motivated community.
Cllr Dan Lister, Cabinet Member for Local Economy, Culture and Leisure at West Northamptonshire Council, said:
“It is fantastic that the consultation and engagement for the vision of the future Greyfriars site has received national recognition. The prestigious industry awards bring together exemplars across the country and finest in their fields, and it is an honour that our Council is the only one to be recognised at this level. We look forward to the next stage and celebrating all the finalists in October.”
Engagement and involvement from Northampton’s community was achieved through utilisation of digital collaboration opposed to reliance upon traditional surveys and town stalls. Instead, town residents were able to participate in much wider-reaching online surveys to which over 2,500 people gave their responses and additionally over 6,000 individual comments were received.
The website recorded over 12,000 sessions and 20,000 page views from nearly 10,00 unique users revealing the high amount of interaction with the community that the council was able to achieve through their use of online methods of feedback and communication.
In contrast to this, knowing that not all people have reliable access to the internet the Council also utilised methods which ensured that all town members could engage with the consultation regardless of how well they are able to access the internet. A clear example of one of these methods was an in-person event that was held at the Grosvenor Shopping centre on Saturday 1 June which was able to attract itself towards 680 people. A lot of these people that attended were unaware of the scheme previously meaning this event was a useful asset in introducing the Greyfriars scheme to more people.
The winners will be announced at the annual awards ceremony on Thursday 24th October 2024. Click here to find out more about the regeneration schemes across Northampton.