North East Thatcham, West Berkshire

DevComms was appointed by West Berkshire Council to design, manage and deliver the community engagement programme for the draft North East Thatcham Masterplan, which included a proposed residential-led development of up to 2,500 new homes to the north east of Thatcham, allocated in the council's Local Plan.

The Masterplan will establish the vision, land uses and infrastructure requirements for the site and, once adopted, will guide future planning applications.

The scheme was historically resisted locally and politically, so it was important to deliver an engagement programme that gave local people a genuine opportunity to help shape the emerging Masterplan, at a point early enough for community views to genuinely influence its content.

DevComms designed and delivered a structured engagement programme, which included stakeholder engagement and broad public participation.

The programme included tailored stakeholder workshops, bringing together elected members, statutory bodies, local community groups and a range of infrastructure providers. Public drop-in events followed, held at accessible venues across the district, reflecting the development's impact across a wider geography. The strategy also included a "virtual town hall" and a dedicated project website which hosted the digital feedback survey, consultation materials and event recordings throughout the engagement period.

Publicity included a hand-delivered leaflet to approximately 5,600 addresses, press coverage in local news outlets, direct written notification to relevant town and parish councils, and a telephone line and email address managed by the DevComms team.

Across all channels, the programme generated a significant level of engagement and over 400 individual responses. This reflected the success of the engagement programme and high profile nature of the project locally.

The engagement produced a detailed and consistent evidence base directly informing the content of the emerging Masterplan. The findings were compiled into a comprehensive Community Engagement Report presented to West Berkshire Council and the North East Thatcham Partnership, recording all feedback received and identifying clear community expectations for the Masterplan to address.

West Berkshire Council will use the findings to inform the next stage of the Masterplan before proceeding with formal public consultation.