Aylesbury was awarded Garden Town status by the government in 2017, recognising that the town is going to be one of the key areas for growth in the UK, with just over 16,000 new homes planned.

In 2018, Soundings were appointed as part of a masterplanning team, to carry out community engagement and consultation for the Aylesbury Garden Town (AGT) vision and masterplanning project. In collaboration with the AGT communications team, Soundings have carried out a number of events, seeking to engage both key decision makers, stakeholders and partners, active community members, as well as residents and members of the public, in the development of the overarching vision and emerging themes for the masterplan.

Soundings designed and facilitated a visioning workshop for decision makers and key stakeholders to discuss strategic visions, high-level working principles and innovative ambitions for the project. A parallel community panel was set up to allow key stakeholders of the local community to participate in the discussion of the Garden Town. Emerging themes and principles were shared with the wider public via public exhibitions. The public launch was supported by a communications campaign to ensure the project was visible and it generated interest from Aylesbury residents.

To help inform the masterplanning team, Soundings developed an interactive website to coincide with the public consultation events. This digital engagement was in the form of an interactive map where people can click and comment on specific locations around Aylesbury, sharing aspects that they love, hidden gems or areas for opportunity or improvement.

This project is ongoing with further engagement and consultation on the draft masterplan anticipated for mid/late 2019.