The Shipley Town Council Citizens’ Jury is an example of a deliberative process, similar to a Citizens’ Assembly, but smaller. It was commissioned by Shipley Town Council with support from a National Lottery ‘Together for Our Planet’ grant.

Shared Future CIC were proud to be asked to advise and act as consultants to the process, which ran over the Autumn of 2022. The final report was delivered to the Town Council in March 2023.

The report of the process explains how it ran and, in their own words, shares the conclusion of the jury in the form of a statement and fourteen recommendations.

Every household in Shipley was sent an invitation and, from 130 applicants, the twenty five jurors were randomly selected to reflect the diversity of the population of Shipley. Between September and November 2022 the jury met every week for eight weeks to consider climate science, its impact and possible adaptations, presented by 14 speakers.

The jury worked to answer the question:

“How can we work together in Shipley to limit climate change and its impacts while protecting our environment and health?”

An Oversight Panel supported the recruitment process, formulated the question the jury would address, and identified expert speakers and evaluation methods. The panel met parallel to the jury and was made up of 11 key local stakeholders.

Collectively the Jury worked hard, challenged and listened to each other, deliberated and identified fourteen sets of detailed recommendations with a specific focus on Transport, Education and Housing.

“I’m impressed that a decent amount of time has been set aside for exploring these issues”

Shipley Jury member

The Jury statement concluded with this compelling call to action:

This experience has ignited a passion in us all. We have shown that when we are aware – we care. We have become one in our shared vision of the need to tackle this enormous problem. Our experience of coming together as a group has shown us the value of community. As members of the Shipley Citizens’ Jury on Climate Change we have moved from ‘me thinking’ to ‘we thinking’. Shipley must do the same.

The depth and quality of the deliberation has gone down really well in Shipley.

We have all fully bought into Paul’s work to bring together 25 local people to form the jury and discuss and probe into one of the great issues of our time.

Councillor Michael Connors, Chair of Shipley Town Council

Summary of the recommendations

The jury asked that their recommendations were discussed at the next town council meeting (March, 2023) with the intent of delivering a plan of action for each within the following 3 months. A summary of the recommendations is below:

1. Retrofitting buildings – To rapidly develop a local workforce with skills to improve the energy efficiency of Shipley’s homes and buildings through a process known as retrofitting.
2. Nature – To encourage and enable nature to thrive in Shipley, by securing council funds and external grants to support environmental action.
3. Information Hub – To locate a physical and or online information hub in an accessible community location, showcasing facts on what climate change is and how we can combat it.
4. Transport – To ask all councils to strongly advocate for public transport systems that reduce carbon, particulates, nitrogen oxides and sulphur oxides in our local urban landscapes.
5. Commitment from the Business Community – To incentivise and encourage Shipley businesses to make the Yorkshire and Humber Climate Action Pledge, or similar, that helps protect businesses and the environment from climate impacts.
6. Student Education – To build resilience amongst students by embedding a Climate Change Curriculum in Schools that helps all age groups address and adapt to climate change.
7. Pedestrians – To review and improve areas of Shipley that discourage safe and efficient walking.

Download the report of the Shipley Citizen’s Jury on Climate

Read Phillippa Banister’s blog on being a facilitator at the jury

Review all the presentations and process on the Shipley Town Council’s dedicated webpage