We led the community engagement strand behind Wokingham Borough Council’s strategic design code for Loddon Valley Garden Village, the largest site allocation in the Wokingham Local Plan Update, delivering 3,930 homes (40% affordable) alongside new employment, green and blue infrastructure.
Rather than treat consultation as a formality, we designed a programme of 19 x Community Walking Tours, that included 15 x in-person routes across Wokingham, Shinfield, Arborfield and Sindlesham, plus 4 x digital evening sessions, inviting residents to explore existing places at human scale alongside officers and the design team.
We applied our tried and tested “Sense of Place” framework arranged around four interdependent lenses: Uses & Activities, Access & Movement, Streets & Spaces, and Form & Detail. This gave participants a shared language to explain why places succeed or fail. Lived experience surfaced directly: unsafe alleyways, flood-prone junctions, streets too narrow for emergency access, and a strong appetite for wetlands, wildlife corridors and swift bricks.
These grounded insights were translated into Design Principles and Performance Criteria, ensuring the code is technically robust, locally grounded, and shaped by the people who know Wokingham’s places best.
