In July, we hosted free Councillor Training Sessions as part of our Kent Design offering for 2025/26. With the government’s accelerated targets for housebuilding highlighting the need to ensure good design quality alongside housing demand, this was a good time to put design and planning at the forefront of the minds of both new and re-elected councillors.
We offered this training as three bite-sized online sessions, hosted in the evenings for ease of attendance. The sessions, which centred around the Design Network’s document Councillor’s Companion for Design in Planning, each focused on a key theme:
- Session 1: Why and how do planning and design fit together?
- Session 2: The characteristics of well-designed places
- Session 3: Things to watch out for
Through these topics, we were able to help demystify the relationship between planning and design, and provide Kent-based case studies of where good design principles have helped to shape better places. The councillors who attended came to the sessions with curiosity and a wealth of engaging questions for our expert speakers, driven by a clear desire for change in Kent and Medway.
With many councillors having had no prior knowledge of the ten characteristics of well-designed places, we were able to highlight real-life examples of how each of these characteristics support successful places, why they matter, and how to recognise these characteristics when determining planning applications. Most importantly, these sessions allowed councillors to ask valuable questions of those with expertise in the fields of architecture, urban design and landscape, to further their understanding of the bigger picture.
From the feedback we gathered following these sessions, councillors found the sessions to be very beneficial in deepening their understanding of the relationship between design and planning, and how their role can help to influence this.
‘I found your training very informative, professional in its delivery, and I like how very engaging you made it with your clear slides and examples.’ — Councillor Anne Dawes, Maidstone Council.
‘(These sessions) gave me a much deeper understanding of what to consider when looking at planning applications and highlighted many important aspects I hadn’t previously thought about. I would definitely recommend this training to others.’ — Councillor Chrissy Stamp, Medway Council
We would like to extend a huge thanks to the councillors who attended our sessions, and to our contributors to the sessions, including.
