In January 2021 Chichester District Council (CDC) approved a Climate Emergency Action Plan in which it committed to hold a Citizens' Assembly “…comprised of members of the public selected to represent the demographic profile of the citizens of Chichester District [age, gender identity, sexuality, race, religion, social background, education]. The participants will call on expert evidence to help them formulate detailed recommendations on climate change mitigation that can inform the decision-making of district councillors.”

In September, the planned Citizens' Assembly was dropped because of “delays to the assembly and concerns about cost to benefit ratios.” The Citizen’s Assembly was a core element of the Action Plan and the only route through which a diverse range of ordinary people from the district could shape and influence CDC priorities and actions to combat the climate and ecological emergencies.

The decision to abandon the Citizen’s Assembly was taken internally without public consultation, even though there had been strong public support for it during consultations on the Action Plan. While CDC avoids meaningful public engagement and input into its plans, the UK Parliament and many local authorities have recognized the benefit of Citizen’s Assemblies in helping them to understand public preferences on how they should tackle climate change, giving a voice to citizens in climate change decision-making.

Citizens' Assemblies are proven to be successful with hundreds having taken place in the UK and around the world on issues like climate change, social housing, healthcare, air pollution and brexit. A Citizens' Assembly on the climate crisis called Climate Assembly UK came up with recommendations to the UK government more ambitious than any political party has produced in decades. This short video shows how inspiring this Assembly was: https://youtu.be/EDGp5eGnnxI

By selecting representative groups of everyday people by lottery, and bringing them together in Citizens' Assemblies, we can break the hold of career politicians on decisions and bypass the powerful vested interests.

Let's create a real democracy of the people, by the people, and for the people.

We urge CDC to fulfil its commitment to establish a Citizens' Assembly!

More information on Citizens' Assemblies: www.sortitionfoundation.org