OVERVIEW
Sustainable development in Windsor
As a strategic land promoter and Principal (Master) Developer, we put sustainability front and centre, working hard with stakeholders to create places that will leave a positive and lasting impact for local communities.
Location matters
With excellent transport links, a historic centre, and stunning countryside, Windsor is a great place to live. But it is also a town in desperate need of new homes and community facilities. We worked with the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead for over ten years to create a development that worked and to achieve planning consent.
Shaping a better scheme from the start
Normally, we don’t share our plans for a scheme until they’re fairly developed. However, in this case, we wanted to engage the community as early as possible to benefit from local knowledge. We established a stakeholder master-planning working group with key stakeholders, including parish councils, local businesses, and interest groups.
With the COVID-19 pandemic in full swing, meetings were held online, which proved to be a game-changer. Online meetings allowed many more people to easily participate, with regular attendance peaking at about 30 different stakeholder groups.
Bringing together so many groups in one forum meant that solutions were more holistic, leading to better outcomes and a better scheme with more benefits for everyone.
Making stakeholder engagement work
Public engagement is a requirement for every new development, but getting it right is tricky. Proactive and positive two-way engagement is challenging. It takes skill, expertise, and commitment, but our scheme at Windsor shows that it can pay off.
Today, it stands as a great example of our ‘end-to-end’ engagement approach. We were delighted when our efforts were recognised with the RTPI award for Best Plan in the South-East. Now, we look forward to seeing it come to fruition.
What it will deliver
- 455 new homes, including 180 (40%) affordable homes
- Special Educational Needs school, fully funded by the DfE
- Community building with hot desks for working
- EV charging points and rain gardens
- Open space covering a third of the site, with orchards, allotments, an outdoor gym, play spaces, and significant Biodiversity Net Gain.
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