Challenge
The Droves Solar Farm is a Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project facing tight timelines, overlapping consultations with other local Development Consent Order schemes and ‘development fatigue’ among communities in a region saturated with renewables projects. Confusion and disengagement posed risks to support and delivery.
Approach
Copper delivered a strategic communications and engagement plan that:
- emphasised landscape sensitivity and local benefits, addressing visual and access concerns
- enabled co-design with communities, integrating feedback into proposals (e.g., public rights of way)
- created clear, visual materials and maintained a “you said, we did” narrative to build trust
- ran proactive stakeholder briefings to clarify the project’s identity and avoid cross-project confusion.
Value delivered
- Built strong stakeholder relationships ahead of statutory consultation
- Achieved visible design changes based on public input, thereby enhancing credibility
- Successfully de-risked early opposition, to shift perceptions and support programme momentum