Interactive Masterplanning for Loughborough Town Centre

Context

Loughborough is a key economic hub in Leicestershire, currently focused on revitalising its town centre through a comprehensive masterplan. Charnwood Borough Council, in partnership with Aspinall Verdi and Spawforth sought to engage the community to identify effective themes for the town centre and pinpoint areas for improvement.

The primary challenge was managing a complex set of objectives: the Council needed to ask sensitive, difficult questions while maintaining openness and ensuring the public did not mistake every suggestion for a final delivery commitment. 

With a need for both high-quality qualitative insights and hard quantitative data to secure cabinet approval, PlaceChangers platform was used to provide a digital-first, interactive engagement layer in addition to any in-person engagement events and within a fast-moving project.

What PlaceChangers enabled

The project team utilised the PlaceChangers platform to deliver a guided, thematic consultation that mirrored the effectiveness of a site tour through key thematic areas and related locations across the town centre study area. 

Key activities included:

• Site Visits and walkabout: Surveyors used the portable site visit tool to capture information and notes quickly while on-site, using the mapping feature to compare actual locations with planning expectations.
• Thematic Engagement: The consultation was structured around themes rather than just a "non-project" approach, allowing for more structured open community input in free-form format.
• Blended Outreach: A combination of social media promotion by the Council team and face-to-face sessions ensured that online and in-person responses "married up" effectively, avoiding the risk of digital exclusion.
• AI-Enhanced Reporting: While the majority of responses were qualitative, the platform’s AI features provided a valuable quantitative view, allowing the team to rank the priority of issues, while also seeing in-depth qualitative perspectives.

As part of the online consultation, the platform’s unique "guided tour" approach led participants through specific categories, making it easy for non-tech-savvy users to provide detailed feedback, see other people’s responses where relevant and support shared views. 

Key Outcomes

The consultation was deemed highly effective, successfully capturing comprehensive information and securing the evidence needed to forward-inform further masterplanning. The team had access to a flexible and responsive delivery mechanism that adapted to the requirement at hand and in a fast-paced project environment. Fast iteration and responsiveness to client requirements for consultation setup enabled a strong delivery with various moving parts combined in a comprehensive approach. 

As a result of this: 

• Plans were supported at committee with strong evidence base: The town centre vision strategy was approved at committee in March 2026, shortly after project conclusion.
• Evidence-Based Strategy: The Council gained the confidence that their engagement was successful, providing a robust evidence base for the plan to be presented to the cabinet.
• High-Quality Insights: The platform gathered "rich detail" and openness that traditional tools might have missed, thanks to the effective question structure.
• Efficiency in Reporting: The custom reports served as a "perfect appendix," providing a detailed summary that simplified the final reporting process for the consultants.
• User Satisfaction: Both the professional team and the Council staff reported high levels of satisfaction, noting that the tool significantly simplified their work processes.