The working group met at the BTP on 9th January 2020 to review progress. Two members had attended a neighbourhood planning event and it did not seem that there was much interest in involving SDA. It did seem to be a ‘top down’ event. There will however be a consultation stage and there may well be an opportunity then to have an input. Mark is to write and offer our participation.

There was a lengthy discussion on Talk Shop. [NB: the website is http://www.talkshopuk.org but a link could not be secured]. Our attempts to develop a Citizens’ Assembly in Salisbury have not been successful so we are proposing a talk shop event which is simpler and can be run with only modest funding. The purpose is to discuss how the local authority can meet its climate change responsibilities.

The event will last 2 hours and we are proposing to run one in March with around 30 participants at the Playhouse. We will invite participants from the Democracy Café, XR, Civic Society and we will invite the council if they wish to participate.

Talkshop provide a list of short suggestions and these can be copied and given to the participants. They will break into groups to discuss these – and others if suggested – and then try and boil it down to a handful of key suggestions.

There will be a trial of this method on 6 February 2020 at 2:30 meeting at BTP as usual.