North Norfolk District Council

Satsuma started working with North Norfolk District Council (NNDC) in 2022 after it commissioned the creation of a North Walsham Vision and Marketing Plan to help business and the wider community to encourage them to think aspirationally and creatively about their town and its future. A five-year plan of aims and objectives was created tied into a new vision, mission and values statement.

Return on investment

Understanding the challenges

North Walsham was mid-way through a four-year Heritage Action Zone (HAZ) Regeneration Program which began in 2020.

Funded by Historic England, NNDC and the Government’s ‘Building Back Better Fund,’ the HAZ program should have been seen as the perfect opportunity to capitalise on the town’s unique heritage stories and assets and inject some fresh, forward-thinking ideas. However, the program was met with some resistance with negativity largely coming from a small number of business owners resistant to change.

people surveyed

case studies

interviews

Our Work

The project lasted four months and allowed us to spend plenty of time on the ground in North Walsham, exploring the town’s ambitions and opportunities and assessing what was required to develop a sense of place and identity in order to create a long-term strategy.

During this time, we carried out 106 interviews with stakeholders to gather a full picture of what local people think of the town and how they want to improve it.

This has helped us identify some key themes to explore as well as create key recommendations with a roadmap for the newly regenerated town centre inclusive of specific actions and projects.

These were provided as tangible opportunities to capitalise on town centre improvements and to explain ways in which North Walsham can flourish as a community hub and as a platform for economic, social and cultural activities and interventions.

We worked closely with the local church, pub landlords, shop owners and local councillors and among recommendations was support of a local Business Partnership to generate role models for the business community.

We also reintroduced the council spokespeople to the editor of the local paper, helping forge a new relationship based around raising the reputation of the town and preventing the negative voices having the monopoly.

Importantly, we also explored opportunities for youth engagement, speaking to high school pupils on their experiences growing up in the town. This led to the backing of a new project to create a hub in the town centre for students, focusing on apprenticeship opportunities and

working with the local high schools on work experience placements to create better cohesion between the younger and older generations.

Results

A snapshot of success

A survey of 564 young people was carried out which found that 400 said the town did not currently have enough in terms of facilities and resources to access for young people with 350 wanting access to a meeting or socialising place and 250 calling for more events or social opportunities. The majority wanted provision of youth resources in the heart of the town centre.

Outcomes

The work led to the creation of the Phoenix Project in the town centre which is now up and running, providing a home for the Youth Council, a music studio, a student-run coffee shop and a volunteer programme.

Let’s get the stat

100-page report
57 toolkits
5-year action plan

“Satsuma’s ability to turn legal jargon into content that customers would actually understand and get value from was second to none. They quickly rewrote 900 website profiles, talking to key stakeholders across the business and devising a tone of voice that aligned with our new brand identity."

“The copywriter’s background as a journalist meant they could communicate in a way that explained why something is important and relevant to the reader, rather than just imparting facts.” 