Kendal Town Council’s Citizens’ Jury: Four years on

Shared Future helped to facilitate the UK’s first Town Council Climate Assembly in 2020. Since then we have been following how things are progressing, and its long term impact. In a new guest blog by Anne-Marie Sanderson, Projects Officer at Kendal Town Council, we can see that it is still making a difference.


In 2020 Kendal Town council commissioned and co-ordinated Kendal’s Climate Change Citizens Jury; the first Citizens’ Jury held on a town level in the UK. The coronavirus pandemic meant carrying out the Jury process online, but this was no barrier to the jury in understanding the information they learned from experts’ presentations.

The overarching question that the Jury sought to answer was: ‘What should Kendal do about Climate Change?’

In response, the Jury developed 27 recommendations covering a wide range of categories, from food and farming, housing and energy, promoting action and raising awareness, and transport. The Town Council and several partners committed to delivering the recommendations to honour the Jury process and support Kendal Town Council’s Climate Emergency Declaration made in 2019.

What has been achieved?

Since the Jury process concluded in 2020, work has been ongoing to meet the jury’s recommendations. Kendal Town Council’s commitment has been evident in various projects, and in its recruitment of an additional member of staff to carry these projects out.

Some of the projects were within the Town Council’s usual remit. For example, as the body in charge of allotments locally, the Town Council was able to grow allotment provision to meet the Jury’s recommendation to provide more space to allow people to grow their own food.

Other projects required partnership working, for example, the “Solar Made Easy” project, which worked with Cumbria Action for Sustainability to encourage the uptake of solar PV by householders locally, working toward meeting the recommendation “we must increase renewables in our town”.

A number of the Jury’s recommendations touched on areas outside of the Town Council’s governance, for example, recommendations relating to reducing traffic, encouraging cycling, and changing food production systems. Despite the Town Council’s relative lack of agency in these areas, which are usually concerns for higher tiers of government, other government bodies or simply market forces, the Jury process has strengthened the public mandate for these, and other recommendations.

New One Stop Climate Shop opens

A key recommendation made by the Jury which has been achieved this year with funding support from Kendal Town Council is the creation of a “one-stop shop” for climate information and inspiration. After two years of searching for a venue and exploring various possibilities, this has come to fruition in the form of The Eddington, a vacant sports hall tucked away behind Kendal’s former United Reformed Church.

The Eddington is also the new home of Waste Into Wellbeing, Kendal’s social food project, which aims to reduce the amount of waste and surplus food generated by the food system (wholesalers, hospitality and retailers) in Kendal. Having a food project at the heart of the Eddington’s activities brings together a diverse community of volunteers working to reduce food waste and to increase access to healthy food.

In a few short months of operation so far, the Eddington has hosted various events, including an afternoon of inspiring car-free films, an evening of presentations and discussion around cycling in Kendal, and a sustainable Christmas workshop. There is a real buzz around future plans for the Eddington, including a bike recycling and repair workshop, a garden for growing food for Waste Into Wellbeing, and more.

While these activities may have come about independently of each other, the Citizens’ Jury process has provided a catalyst bringing together passionate and likeminded people working towards a common goal, and nowhere is this better exemplified than at the Eddington. Watch this space for more updates in 2025!


Read the 2 year update on progress

Download the 2020 report


Image Credits: Anne-Marie Sanderson 2024