Supporting community engagement: Bodmin Town Centre Charrette

Having provided communications support for the Liskeard community planning event, known as a Charrette, in 2019, I was asked to support the Bodmin Town Centre Charrette in March 2022.

Led by Cornwall Council and Bodmin Town Team in partnership with key local stakeholders, and supported by architects JTP, the aim of the five day event was to bring local people together to create a design and plan for the town centre. Activities included workshops, meetings, face to face discussions, both group and one to ones, community activities, walkabouts and questionnaires.

Having met with the key partners at the end of January I developed a detailed communications plan to cover the event from a launch event, aimed at partners and key stakeholders, on 1 March to the formal feedback session on the evening of 22 March.

This focused on four key objectives:

  • Raise awareness of Bodmin Town Centre Charrette among key stakeholders and the wider public 
  • Increase community engagement with the Charette process and encourage participation, including young people and groups which have previously been under-represented
  • Ensure that communications are managed effectively with all key partners
  • Maximise the benefits of Bodmin Town Centre Charrette and ensure that the event generates positive public and media image for Bodmin

With a number of different audiences to engage with, including local residents, local businesses, schools, colleges and young people, elected members, partners, (including Bodmin Town Team, Bodmin Chamber of Commerce, Bodmin Town Council and voluntary and community sector organisations), statutory organisations – Cornwall Council, Homes England, National Highways, Environment Agency, Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, the wider public and the media, I needed to use a wide range of comms channels. 

These included the creation of a specific area on Cornwall Council’s Let’s Talk site : https://letstalk.cornwall.gov.uk/bodmin-town-centre.

Information was also posted on partner and community social media platforms; with posters, flyers and leaflets posted to residents’ houses and distributed to businesses; presentations; media releases, broadcast interviews and the use of partners websites and communications channels.

I also produced a video prior to the launch event:

The launch event was very well attended and was covered by BBC Spotlight tv on the day, with interviews on both the lunchtime and evening programmes, as well as by the print and online media. This helped to raise public awareness of the actual Charrette.

The first two days of the community planning event, on Friday, 18th and Saturday, 19th March, were held at the Shire Hall, with hundreds of local residents and businesses sharing their local knowledge and ideas through a series of workshops, walkabouts and hands-on planning groups..  As well as the events and activities for the general public, there was a specific workshop for young people and an exhibition providing background information, with team members on hand to answer questions. Performing arts activities on Mount Folly Square on the Saturday, including a Victorian flea circus and a flash mob dance, helped to attract members of the public to the event.  

Following the two days of workshops,  the JTP team drew up a Vision for the town centre, including an illustrative masterplan, which was presented back to the local community on the Tuesday evening.

Ideas put forward by the local community included making far more of Bodmin’s unique Cornish cultural and built heritage; reducing the dominance of the car in Fore Street, generating a diverse and vibrant mix of shops, cafes and residential, community and business uses; creating an accessible network of streets and alleyways with a range of quality places and spaces to linger and enjoy through the day and into the evening, improving local education, skills training and job opportunities for the local community; co-ordinating the array of visitor attractions to focus on Bodmin and encouraging more people into the town centre all year round; bringing more greenery into the town centre and improving the look of buildings and shopfronts.

I produced a short video with Charles Campion from JTP and a longer video with interviews with the key partners to accompany the post feedback comms.

The results of the Charrette were covered by the media, with front page articles in both the local papers as well as online media.  A number of local residents also joined an engagement group set up by the Town Team to ensure that the local community continues to play a key role in transforming the future of their town centre.

 The illustrative Vision produced by the Charrette is now being used to inform a Town Centre Action Plan and the Re-imagining Fore Street work.

Once specific actions have been identified, partners will work together to develop business cases for individual elements of the scheme which will be used to support future bids for funding.