PlaceChangers
How PlaceChangers Enabled Evidence-Based Planning and Resident Engagement for Karbon Homes
How PlaceChangers Enabled Evidence-Based Planning and Resident Engagement for Karbon Homes
Details:
- Company: PlaceChangers
- Client: Karbon Homes
- Year: 2022
- Region: England
- Product: Interactive consultations, Place analytics & health impact review
Service areas:
- Community engagement
- Plan-making, planning application and data management systems
Introduction
Karbon Homes’ Roseberry project in Pelton sought to transform a long-vacant school site into 107 affordable homes. With Durham’s revised local plan introducing health impact assessments (HIAs) for major developments, and community engagement crucial to success, the project team needed to balance technical requirements with meaningful public input. Hedley Planning and JDDK Architects used PlaceChangers to deliver both an evidence-based health assessment and an interactive digital consultation, ensuring the scheme met planning validation requirements while engaging residents in shaping the design.
Challenges
The project faced two key challenges. First, meeting the new requirement for a dedicated HIA, which was uncharted territory for Hedley Planning. Second, securing balanced community support in a sensitive location, where residents had strong opinions about layout, access, and green space. Traditional methods risked delays, low participation, and fragmented evidence gathering. The team needed tools to streamline assessments and make consultation accessible, engaging, and data-rich and link project delivery to health impacts.
Solutions
Using PlaceChangers, Hedley Planning carried out a rapid HIA structured on the HUDU framework. The toolkit integrated socio-demographic and health datasets, mapped access to services and green spaces, and benchmarked against national health indicators. Parallel to this, Karbon Homes launched an interactive online consultation. Residents could explore site layouts, comment directly on proposals, and annotate maps with suggestions. Print invitations and targeted Facebook ads ensured broad participation. Together, the tools provided both the evidence base for validation and accessible channels for community voices.
Results
The PlaceChangers toolkit halved the time needed to complete the HIA, enabling Hedley Planning to submit a well-evidenced report that satisfied validation requirements. The interactive consultation drew responses from 80 residents, generating over 100 comments and ideas, with a balanced spread of support and constructive critique. Feedback shaped design refinements, including boundary treatments and additional walkways. Ultimately, the project secured full planning permission in 2022. For Karbon Homes and Hedley Planning, the process not only delivered a successful outcome but also built confidence in digital-first approaches to planning and assessment.
"The combination of the criteria, place evidence, ability to link locations helped us to prepare a well-evidenced impact statement much faster. We also appreciated that the platform provided a ready made structure to follow. The resulting output filled validation requirements."
Alex Franklin
Planning Director, Hedley Planning
