The Former Wisley Airfield

What we did

Cratus has been developing an in-depth consultation and engagement programme to support the build-up to a masterplan application for the former Wisley Airfield site, which was submitted in 2022. Cratus leads on political engagement and formal public consultations, with an additional focus on wider resident engagement which reaches the traditionally harder-to-hear audiences whose views could have a considerable impact on the application.

By listening to the community and understanding their priorities and concerns, we were able to tackle some of these challenges more proactively in our communication materials and ensure that clear facts were presented to tackle misinformation.

Post-submission, we launched a mobilisation campaign to gather official support for the application. The team took our campaign out to the community, engaging with people who do not normally take part in formal consultation processes to gather their feedback. From students to local businesses and commuters, we presented the scheme information through clear, factual messaging and unearthed support from the silent majority.

The result

By establishing rapport with stakeholders through regular, proactive, honest and accurate communication and regular engagement, we have built a reputation of trust for our client with the local community.

“Cratus’ knowledge and expertise in planning communications has enabled us to carry out a comprehensive engagement programme through this unprecedented time to inform our evolving proposals by working with the local authorities, community and wider stakeholders.

We look forward to continuing to work with Cratus through our master planning processes and beyond.”

 Antonis Pazourou, Community Manager, Taylor Wimpey