Eastleigh Borough Council appointed Feria Urbanism to develop a community engagement and design strategy for 5,300 new homes north of Bishopstoke and Fair Oak in Hampshire. This development forms the preferred strategic growth option in the submitted Eastleigh Local Plan.

Our role was to engage with the local communities most affected by the proposals to understand their concerns and aspirations. The outcomes of this process were then used to shape and refine an existing technical framework plan, which had originally been informed only by site constraints and opportunities. The aim was to create a locally responsive, community-led framework building on that technical foundation.

To achieve this, we designed a varied programme of engagement techniques — including focus groups, panel discussions, design workshops, structured site visits, and targeted questionnaires — to gather meaningful insights and apply them directly to the evolving plan.