Hartree is major development at the centre of the North East Cambridge Area Action Plan (NECAAP), a planned low carbon district between Cambridge North station and Cambridge Science Park. ECF are working with U+I and TOWN, the master developers of the Core Site. The site consists mostly of an Anglian Water Waste Water Treatment Plant, with plans for 5,600 homes as well as shops, workplaces, education, community and leisure facilities, and open spaces across 48 hectares of brownfield land. With multiple partners involved, the process of designing communications and engagement materials has been complex,  and required some stakeholder management skills to ensure success. 

We were able to add considerable value to the project through an in-depth approach providing deeper insights into community feeling than conventional methodologies. Drawing inspiration from citizen’s assemblies, we assembled a focus group, with support from the Sortition Foundation. The group demographically represents the surrounding area of the Hartree site and was named the “The Ideas Exchange”. The purpose of the group is to provide a platform to discuss the emerging work for the project with local people, who are not representative of a group or forum, through a series of conversations over a prolonged period of time. The project is still ongoing, with our work generating a significant public response and receiving positive client feedback