Published on 21 Nov 2019
UPDATE
At its meeting on 19 February 2020 the GCP Executive Board agreed to respond to the Citizens' Assembly recommendations by the summer of 2020 at the latest. It also agreed to the Citizens' Assembly's request for regular reviews of progress in the longer term. The Executive Board thanked the members of the Citizens' Assembly.
Greater Cambridge Citizens' Assembly
How do we reduce congestion, improve air quality, and provide better public transport in Greater Cambridge?
To help us answer this question, a group of people came together for four days at the Greater Cambridge Citizens’ Assembly to help solve this key issue for the area.
The Greater Cambridge Citizens’ Assembly took place over two weekends in September and October, as follows:
- Saturday 7 and Sunday 8 September 2019
- Saturday 5 and Sunday 6 October 2019
The presentations and panel discussions held at the Assembly were livestreamed on the GCP Facebook page(External link), and uploaded to the GCP Youtube channel(External link). Assembly member discussions and deliberations were not livestreamed or uploaded.
The reports of the Greater Cambridge Citizens' Assembly have been published by Involve:
- Read the Headline Report on the Involve Website (external link)
- Read the Full Report on the Involve website (external link)
Both the Headline Report and Full Report also available in a number of different formats on the MySociety website at the following links:
Headline Report
Full Report:
- Web / mobile: https://publish.mysociety.org/iidp/cambridge-report/
- Unformatted version: https://publish.mysociety.org/iidp/cambridge-report/plain.html
- Kindle: https://publish.mysociety.org/iidp/cambridge-report/cambridge-report.mobi
- Ebook: https://publish.mysociety.org/iidp/cambridge-report/cambridge-report.epub
A Citizens’ Assembly for Greater Cambridge
In a Citizens’ Assembly, members of the public are brought together to consider a public issue and make a recommendation on what action should be taken on that issue.
They do this by listening to evidence, discussing the evidence they hear, and reaching a conclusion together on what steps the administration should take next. The Assembly’s recommendation is then given to decision makers who decide what will happen next.
Member of the Citizens’ Assembly will hear evidence, work with other participants and come up with recommendations. They will have the opportunity to meet with individuals from all walks of life who live and travel regularly within Greater Cambridge, have discussions and hear from engaging expert speakers.
The recommendations from the Citizens’ Assembly will be presented to the Greater Cambridge Partnership's Joint Assembly and Executive Board in January/February 2020.
Organisations involved in the Greater Cambridge Citizens’ Assembly
We have been awarded funding and support from the UK Government's Innovation in Democracy Programme(External link) to hold this Citizens' Assembly. It is jointly delivered by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport and the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government.
Two independent organisations delivered the Assembly:
- The Sortition Foundation(External link) promotes the use of stratified, random selection in decision-making. It is responsible for recruiting people to take part in the Assembly; its aim is to ensure the Assembly is broadly representative of the Greater Cambridge community.
- The Involve Foundation(External link) is a UK-wide public participation charity. Involve will run the Citizens’ Assembly - facilitating and designing the process by which the Assembly members learn, consider and come to recommendations about the topic. They will also write the report on the outcomes of the Assembly.
