Design South East has led a co-creation process with Medway Council to ensure that the community’s aspirations sit at the heart of regeneration in Gillingham Town Centre.
With the support of BPTW, we designed and delivered a structured engagement process, launched at the inaugural ‘LOVE Gillingham’ community event last year.
This took the form of a Community Panel — a diverse group of local residents brought together to shape a shared vision and action plan for the town’s future.
Through open, deliberative dialogue, residents explored what they value about their town, what needs to change, and how to turn their shared vision into practical, long-term action.
Over five months, we recruited and set up the demographically representative panel, facilitating three in-depth workshops that placed community voices at the centre of decision-making.
The process has helped build trust, confidence and connection — laying the foundations for a transformation that reflects the aspirations of local people and strengthens pride of place.
The Medway project team recently won the directorate-level ‘Community Support’ award at the Council’s Make a Difference Awards 2025. Meanwhile a new Gillingham Community Council is full steam ahead with actioning projects to bring about positive transformation to the town centre.
If you’d like to know more about how DSE helps councils and communities co-create visions, strategies and design frameworks, get in touch at helen@designsoutheast.org.
You can read about the co-creation process in our workshop report here.