Elephant and Castle today
Introduction
A large-scale, long-term regeneration project such as that at the Elephant and Castle requires a huge amount of public consultation and active participation by local people to get it right.
Soundings is an independent consultancy tasked with ensuring the full involvement of the community in the development of proposals for the Elephant and Castle. We were appointed by Lend Lease in May, 2011. Since then we have worked with Lend Lease, the council and key representatives of the community to establish and run an open and inclusive consultation process.
As outlined in the 'Consultation Timeline' section of this website, we are following a three stage process to help structure dialogue and engagement with the community in connection with the generation of a masterplan for the 9.3 hectares (23 acre) Heygate Estate and a detailed design for Phase 1, Rodney Road. The plan is to submit an Outline Planning Application for the Heygate estate and a Detailed Planning Application for the Rodney Road site in late Spring, 2012.
The first stage ran from July to September and focused on establishing the Masterplan Principles. Consultation consisted a two week interactive exhibition at the Consultation Hub (182-184 Walworth Road), Pop-up events near the shopping centre, three meetings with a specially convened Community Forum consisting around 180 community and council representatives and independently chaired by Sarah Gaventa, a number of 'walk and talk' site visits and the setting up and inaugural meetings of three key Liaison Groups. Our first newsletter has been circulated to all within the wider 'Regeneraltiom Area' (see the 'Regeneration Map' to the right) giving an update on initial findings and forthcoming events. An interim report on the first stage of consultation has also been published and is available at the 'Hub' and will be made available through the website shortly.
The second stage is now well underway, running between October and December planned to consider and give feedback on the Concept Masterplan for the Heygate Estate and initial architectural thinking on the Phase 1 site. The focus for this stage centres on the drop-in exhibition and associated 'walk and talk' in connection with the phase 1 proposals on 7 and 8 October, the interactive exhibition and workshop on the Concept Masterplan for the Heygate estate on 19-22 October (where the Rodney Road proposals will be shown for a second time) and 29 October respectively, and a range of bespoke events programmed to discuss meanwhile uses, housing and sustainability. Meetings continued with our Liaison Groups and with the Community Forum at this stage to ensure widespread involvement of key figures. Most of these events are staged at the Consultation Hub and further details on current events can be found in the 'Transform the Heygate' section
The third stage will commence in January 2012 to consider and discuss the Draft Masterplan for the Heygate, and more detailed architectural designs for Rodney Road. A detailed programme for the consultation events to be staged in connection with this will be published shortly.
Should you wish to be involved in any aspect of the consultation, whether through simply attending a 'drop-in' event or by becoming a member of one of our Liaison Groups, we would be very pleased to hear from you.
Please contact us by:
Phone - call 020 7729 1705 and ask for the Heygate Team
Email - heygate@soundingsoffice.com
Mail - Heygate Team, Soundings, 148 Curtain Road, London EC2A 3AT
or drop in at the Consultation Hub any Friday between 1 and 5pm.