Securing allocation for a 415-home site in Newmarket
Securing allocation for a 415-home site in Newmarket
KOR Communications designed and delivered the community and stakeholder consultation for The Jockey Club's Pinewood proposals in September 2024, presenting six concept layouts for the 20-hectare site to more than 180 attendees over two days. The site was subsequently allocated as AP20 in the West Suffolk Local Plan 2024-2041 for around 415 homes and a country park. West Suffolk Council adopted the Local Plan in July 2025.
The project
The Jockey Club's connection to Newmarket, the historic home of horseracing, dates back to 1750. The Jockey Club owns land central to the town's racing industry and identity with two racecourses and 110km of gallops, and in 2022, it launched Playing Our Part in Newmarket's Future, a wide-ranging conversation about how the organisation could help the town remain a healthy, vibrant and prosperous place to live and work. KOR ran a first consultation that year, introducing a Racecourse Side concept masterplan including new homes at Pinewood and a community park at Seven Springs. New housing on land connected to the racing industry is among the most sensitive questions Newmarket faces, and any proposals would need to demonstrate meaningful and substantive engagement with the town's key stakeholders.
As West Suffolk Council prepared its new Local Plan, The Jockey Club developed those early ideas into detailed options for a landscape-led neighbourhood of around 415 homes, including affordable housing and a new country park. We were appointed to design and deliver a consultation to invite feedback on this work and promote the site into the Local Plan.
Our approach
Every engagement we design starts with the local circumstances, because the stakeholders who matter and the questions that form opinion differ from place to place. In Newmarket, that meant recognising that the horseracing industry is intrinsic to the town and designing the consultation so the industry could shape the proposals as they developed over time.
In September 2024, we presented the next iteration of the proposals and six concept layouts for the Pinewood site. We mapped political, community and racing stakeholders, distributed invitations to nearby homes and businesses and organised a two-day exhibition. All 18 display boards were replicated on the project website, so the consultation remained accessible to all. Alongside the public programme, we facilitated direct engagement with councillors and the horseracing industry on the highest priority questions regarding housing mix, traffic, active travel and ecology.
The outcome
The two-day exhibition was attended by over 180 visitors with the feedback recognising Newmarket's need for more homes while identifying affordable housing, infrastructure, traffic and a mix of house types as the priorities for further consideration. There was broad support for Seven Springs Country Park, with space for nature and wildlife and new footpaths the most popular suggested features.
The Pinewood site was subsequently allocated as AP20 in the West Suffolk Local Plan 2024-2041 for around 415 homes and a country park. West Suffolk Council adopted the plan in July 2025, with further consultation and technical work to follow as more detailed proposals are prepared.
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By engaging early, testing options publicly and building a documented evidence base of community priorities before the plan is examined. For Pinewood in Newmarket, The Jockey Club's September 2024 consultation presented six concept layouts and included direct engagement with councillors and the racing industry, and the site was subsequently allocated as AP20 in the West Suffolk Local Plan adopted in July 2025.
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The emerging plans showed around 415 homes of different sizes and tenures, including affordable housing, across the 20-hectare Pinewood site, alongside a country park and connections to existing walking and cycling routes. Six concept layouts were presented at the September 2024 consultation, and the site has since been allocated as AP20 in the West Suffolk Local Plan.
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Effective consultation is centred on those matters specific to an area. In Newmarket, the horseracing industry and its associated stakeholders are integral to the town's economy and daily life. KOR mapped the industry's key interests alongside the political and community stakeholders and facilitated engagement with racing organisations on the questions that mattered the most to the horseracing industry cluster in the town, including traffic, active travel and the relationship between new homes and the working racing landscape.