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Thirty local people are helping to develop a new action plan to tackle one of the biggest issues facing the world today - climate change.
Lancaster City Council has convened a People’s Jury on climate change, a pioneering way of involving ordinary people in advising the council and others on how best to combat the problem.
It follows the council’s declaration of a climate change emergency last year and is 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 will reflect 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 are needed – all that’s required is a willingness to share views and opinions and listen to those of other people.
At the end of the process a set of recommendations will be 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.
To find out more, read our frequently asked questions below.
Our People's Jury is a way of involving members of the public to help make important decisions, it brings together a group of some 30 members of the public who are chosen to reflect the make-up of our district. They talk about an issue, share ideas and eventually come up with a set of recommendations. They are helped by experienced facilitators who make sure everyone has a fair say and that the task is achieved. Recruitment for the People's Jury is being organised through the Sortition Foundation, who have randomly selected 4,000 addresses from across the district. Each of these addresses will receive a letter of invitation to apply to join the jury. The Foundation will then select 30 people who 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 is funded by Lancaster City Council. To make sure that the People's Jury is in no way biased and unfair, an oversight panel has been set up. People from the following organisations have agreed 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 first few sessions will start with an opportunity for people to work in small groups and pairs to think through what climate change means to the Lancaster district and what steps are being taken to address the problem. Throughout the process the group will be joined by a series of expert ‘commentators’ who will talk about the science of climate change and other related topics. A question and answer session will follow their presentations and afterwards the jury will talk about what they've heard. Finally, the People's Jury will discuss and write their own set of recommendations on the last day.
The two facilitators (Pete Bryant and Jenny Willis) are 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.
The recommendations will be written by the People's Jury members in their own words. These recommendations will become the central part of a report that will also include a detailed explanation of the process followed. The recommendations will be considered by Lancaster City Council. Those recommendations that the council have direct responsibility for will be progressed to decision and those that the council doesn't have direct responsibility for will be presented to the appropriate organisation with a recommendation from the city council for them to consider.
