Place-based planning workshops delivered with councils in Cheshire & Merseyside

HEG has recently collaborated with planning experts from the Town and Country Planning Association (TCPA) to deliver the first of two workshops with the planning and public health teams based at Cheshire East Council and Sefton Council. The ‘place-based’ workshops were delivered in each locality during the first week of December, with councils selected through a short expression of interest process. The workshops are the latest output from the ‘Planning for Healthier Weight Environments Workstream’ which is one of five key workstreams within the Cheshire and Merseyside Strategic Obesity Project currently being delivered by HEG, with funding coming from the Cheshire and Merseyside Cancer Alliance.

The primary aim of these two-part workshops is to generate local system buy-in which, in turn, will support the development of robust planning policies promoting access to healthier, affordable food and healthier places. The workshops for each local authority were co-developed between HEG, TCPA and staff from both planning and public at each council, with workshop facilitation coming from Gemma Hyde, Projects and Policy Manager for Healthier Place-Making at the TCPA.

Owing to the strong emphasis on taking a place-based approach to planning and healthier environments, both councils were tasked with engaging a wide cross-section of local stakeholders for the workshops, including elected members, local food partnerships, leisure service providers, VCFSE organisations, representatives from OHID, plus representation from housing and environmental health. Through a series of presentations and group-based exercises, participants considered the role of the planning system and local planning policy, the opportunities presented by new local plan development in the years ahead, and integration of policies that promote healthy environments and sustainable food systems, including an overview of the project’s Food Policy & Planning Toolkit launched earlier in the year, which was presented by HEG’s Food Active Programme Lead, Nicola Calder.

Commenting on the workshops, Matthew Philpott from HEG said: “It has been fantastic to deliver these first two workshops with colleagues at Cheshire East and Sefton Councils, and we have been very fortunate to receive expert support from Gemma Hyde at the TCPE who has been invaluable to shaping and facilitating this work. Over 50 participants from a wide range of organisations and backgrounds attended these first two workshops, and we will be working with colleagues at participating councils to use the findings and feedback from the first workshops to determine which areas of planning policy and place making we will focus on for each council at our second round of workshops in early March 2026”.