People's Jury

Lancaster City Council convened a People’s Jury on climate change to involve local people in advising the council and others on how best to combat the problem.  It followed the council’s declaration of a climate change emergency in 2019 and was supported by academics and experts in the field. Letters were sent to 4,000 across the Lancaster district asking them to take part, with a final 30 chosen from all those who expressed an interest. Those chosen reflected the make-up of the district in relation to gender, age, ethnicity, disability, geography, attitude to climate change and deprivation. No specific qualifications or skills were needed – all that was required was a willingness to share views and opinions and listen to those of other people. 

At the end of the process the jury developed a set of recommendations were developed for the council to consider. Those recommendations that the council has direct responsibility for will be progressed to decision, with those that the council doesn't have direct responsibility being presented to the appropriate organisation with a recommendation that they are considered. 

Our People's Jury was a way of involving members of the public to talk about an issue, share ideas and eventually come up with a set of recommendations. They were helped by experienced facilitators who make sure everyone has a fair say and that the task is achieved. Recruitment for the People's Jury was organised through the Sortition Foundation, who randomly selected 4,000 addresses from across the district. Each of these addresses received a letter of invitation to apply to join the jury. The Foundation then selected 30 people to reflect the diversity of the population, in terms of gender, age, ethnicity, disability, geography, attitude to climate change and from a range of locations based on measures of deprivation’.

The People's Jury was funded by Lancaster City Council. To make sure that the People's Jury is in no way biased and unfair, an oversight panel was set up. People from the following organisationsagreed to attend meetings of the panel: Lancaster University, University of Cumbria, Lancaster City Council, Lancashire County Council, Stagecoach, Bay Health and Care Partners, EDF, Lancaster District Community and Voluntary Solutions, National Farmers’ Union of England and Wales, parish and town councils, Extinction Rebellion, Lancaster Youth for Environment.

The two facilitators (Pete Bryant and Jenny Willis) were from a not for profit organisation called Shared Future and have much experience of running People's Juries across the UK. In the autumn of 2019 they designed managed and facilitated the Leeds Climate Change Citizens’ Jury.

Many people are switched off from politics today. But, when people are given the time, space and information (from a variety of sources) through the use of People's Juries or Citizens’ Assemblies, experience shows that members of the public will develop sensible and well-informed recommendations.This is what we aim to do for the Lancaster district. Most people accept climate change is real but are unsure what it means for them and what impacts it will have on where they live. In early 2019, Lancaster City Council declared a climate emergency. The People's Jury is one of several ways that residents can share their views on how people and organisations of the area could take action to respond to the emergency of climate change. In deciding how we in the Lancaster district best address this enormous problem it is essential that we hear directly from the residents of Lancaster, Morecambe and the surrounding area. Through the People's Jury we aim to recruit a diverse, broadly representative group of local residents who reflect the local population to discuss and make recommendations on how we best address the emergency of climate change.