Sector: Council regeneration

The Weyside Urban Village Regeneration Scheme is an award-winning regeneration project that aims to enhance Guildford's community and address the housing needs of the borough through a large-scale brownfield development.

Weyside Urban Village

Guildford Borough Council, Guildford Borough Council - Status: Ongoing

Our role: Chess Engage was appointed by Guildford Borough Council in 2020 to lead the engagement for the outline planning permission. Following a successful competitive tendering process, we subsequently secured a three-year contract in 2022 to lead strategic communications activities to ensure all communication and engagement activities align with the regeneration objectives.

Our approach: Chess Engage worked closely with the project delivery team and the council’s communications team to refine the key messages and craft a compelling narrative.

We developed an annual rolling communications and engagement strategy, serving as the cornerstone of our approach. Our mandate extends to advising and guiding all community consultation and engagement activities across diverse workstreams. This encompasses overseeing reserved matters applications, conducting statutory consultations, and ensuring seamless coordination with relevant stakeholders.

Our knowledge of the regeneration, the local area and key partners is key to the development of content and collateral to ensure that relationships are maintained with councillors, the local community, amenity groups and contractors to ensure information is shared.

Results:

• Allotment Decant Programme – we successfully led a consultation programme with allotment holders which led to the Secretary of State approving a disposal under the Allotments Act 1925.
• Reserved Matters Applications – we have coordinated four reserved matters applications; three have secured planning approval. The fourth is yet to be determined. 
• S16 and S38 Common Land Applications – working closely with the council's legal advisors, we advised and delivered a consultation in compliance with statutory requirements. Our approach went beyond the standard consultation guidelines and helped secure approval of the applications by the Secretary of State (DeFRA).

The Weyside Urban Regeneration Scheme is an ongoing project.