Peel L&P’s Liverpool Waters is an ambitious plan to transform 60 hectares of former dockland along the River Mersey into vibrant, sustainable, mixed use neighbourhoods for the city. Over ten years since the masterplan was first consulted on, Social was appointed to support Peel L&P as they prepare to go back out to public consultation with an updated masterplan. The first step in this journey was to deliver public engagement around the creation of a new public park ‘Central Park’ which sought the views of residents, businesses and other stakeholders about their connections to the waterfront and their aspirations for the new 1.9 hectare park at the heart of Liverpool Waters.

Key requirements

• Help Peel L&P take the first step into consultation with the public and key stakeholders after a number of years since their last consultation
• To raise awareness of Liverpool Waters and the work behind the scenes over the last decade
• To clearly explain plans for Central Park seeking comments from a wide range of stakeholders including residents, businesses and politicians
• Reach a cross-section of community stakeholders including seldom heard groups such as residents in a disadvantaged community
• Achieve a strong evidence base to inform the project for submission to planning with Liverpool City Council
• Deliver engagement within demanding timescales

We created a new consultation website www.liverpoolwatersletschat.co.uk to run alongside the existing Liverpool Waters website outlining the success of the project to date with a separate page detailing plans for Central Park. The website included a new animation telling the story of Liverpool Waters and provided a central ‘hub’ for the consultation allowing people to share their memories of the area and their views of what they would like to see in a new park and how they would use it. This was promoted through the media, through Peel L&P’s social channels and through direct engagement with stakeholders.

All the promotion directed people to three public events; one at a venue close to the site of the proposed park which offered an additional closed session for key stakeholders; one at a community centre at the heart of the local community and the third within Liverpool Waters itself for existing residents and businesses.

Key outputs

• A new consultation website for Liverpool Waters which encompasses Central Park but can also be used for the materplan consultation this summer
• An animation to bring the project to life, highlighting activity in Liverpool Waters to date and proposals for the new Central Park. This featured on the website and was used on social channels to increase engagement
• An A5 leaflet distributed to 2448 homes and businesses in the area with the aim of promoting the in-person engagement events and encouraging people to visit the website and fill out the online feedback form
• An A5 leaflet pdf distributed (via email) to all existing residents and business within Liverpool Waters
• A number of media releases with embargoed accompanying interviews and images
• Social media activity (Instagram and Twitter) throughout the campaign
• Key stakeholders were invited to the events via email and flyers. Consultee groups and stakeholders contacted included residents and business of the local and wider community, MP’s, ward councillors and cabinet members, Liverpool City Council, Liverpool City Region Combined Authority; Liverpool World Heritage Site Steering Group and local community groups
• Three events at different locations, on different days and times to maximise attendance.

• The website launched on 4 May and was visited by 1,300 unique users between 4-27 May with the greatest number of ‘hits’ on launch day with spikes in visitor numbers following the events
• To raise awareness of the consultation of Central Park, we engaged local and regional media with a press release and accompanying images and video. It achieved 47 pieces of coverage
• There were 1.2k engagements (combined total of likes, comments and shares on social media platforms) over the 3 week period
• We had 157 people attend the events to find out more
• We had with 140 responses in total through our ‘Liverpool Waters Let’s Chat’ feedback forms from the in-person events and the online feedback form.