Salisbury Democracy Alliance

Tag: Talkshop

  • Second Talkshop

    Second Talkshop held in May 2023

    The second Talkshop was held on Saturday 27 May in Brown Street with two hours spent on debating a variety of issues.  The event was run by dividing attendees into groups of around half a dozen who were given a variety of cards upon which were described successful projects that have been run elsewhere in the country or indeed the world.  The result was three ideas which could be applied in Salisbury.  If there was a common theme it was the need for improved involvement in decision making. 

    SDA has been promoting the idea of a citizens’ assembly for some time now so far without success.  The idea of an assembly is to invite a carefully selected and representative group of people – who are then sorted for demographic balance – to debate, with the help of experts, a problem or proposed policy with a view to arriving at an informed result or recommendation.  It has the advantage of involving local people in decision making and in subjecting a proposal or policy to some kind of rigorous analysis before it is put into effect.  It has been successfully applied in a number of locations usually with beneficial results. 

    Cost has been one of the arguments deployed against using the assembly technique and it was coincidental that a row erupted in the City Council concerning a parish poll it held in March this year and there is an article on the subject in the Salisbury Journal (Parish poll will cost city double projected figure, June 1, 2023). The poll is likely to cost £40,000 against an original budget of £18,000.  Very few people took part and it is unclear what value was derived from the exercise. 

    A citizens’ assembly by contrast would cost less than this (and SDA will engage in fundraising to lessen the burden on the Council) and is almost certain to achieve positive results.  One of the factors which emerged in the Talkshop, which all authorities have to recognise today, is the high degree of scepticism and cynicism concerning politics both nationally and locally.  To an extent, local politics has been unfairly coloured by the goings on in Westminster which hardly needs any explanation here.  Scarcely a day passes without some new example of poor policy making, corrupt dealings or serious misjudgement.  ‘A plague on all your houses’ is a familiar refrain from many which as I say, unfairly tarnishes the work of local politicians.

    Involvement

    Part of the problem centres on involvement and participation.  There is also an issue when the local authority does engage in consultation about how real that is.  There are two forms which have the acronyms DAD and EDD.  DAD stands for Decide, Announce, and Defend.  In essence, the local authority decides on what it wants to do, announces it and invites responses.  Then it seeks to defend its position if there are counter views.  The problem is the quality of the original decision and whether it has looked at other options.  It frequently leaves people thinking that the consultation process is little more than a sham. 

    EDD by contrast stands for Engage, Deliberate and Decide.  Engagement has the advantage of involving people in the decision-making process at the start which provides an opportunity for people to contribute ideas with some chance they will be incorporated or at least considered. Of course, no method is perfect and policy makers may say it can be difficult for people to contribute to policy making if they are not provided with options and suggestions to begin with.  Community events can end up with arguments over small details and an avoidance of more strategic issues. Deliberation is important because it gives participants an opportunity to consider the evidence for and against different options before deciding on the recommended ones.

    Talkshop

    But back to the Talkshop.  The three topics which emerged were: making a more concerted effort to involve those who, for one reason or another, are disengaged with local politics; participatory budgeting and finally ‘forum theatre’ – using the arts as a way to engage local people in decision making.  We hope to work on these ideas over the coming months and we are setting up a second event in the autumn to take things forward.  We were delighted to welcome three city councillors who took an active part in the morning and the discussions.

    Those we spoke to after the event felt it was worthwhile.  It was a pity the sudden arrival of warm weather and a bank holiday weekend, reduced the numbers attending.  A deep frustration was evident concerning how we are governed now: people do not seem to believe we are best served by the current system. 

    SDA believes there is a better way and it is within our grasp to make it happen.  At least locally, and here in Salisbury, we can do something to get better decisions and demonstrate to residents that they have a role – a real role – in the management of the city’s affairs.  There will however, have to be a culture change.  Involvement has to mean something tangible and a move away from the DAD (see above) approach we have now.  The councillor who proposed the parish poll is quoted in the Journal as saying “you cannot put a price on democracy”.   Quite so. 

    Peter Curbishley

  • Talkshop: UPDATE

    This is the second post about our second Talkshop due to take place today, 27th May starting at 10:00 at 29 Brown Street Salisbury finishing at 12:00 prompt. Most of the places are now taken so if you are interested in coming and taking part, you do need to book straight away. It is free but we ask for a parting collection to help with our costs.

    The event is run in partnership with the RSA and we are grateful for their help. This is our second event of this kind and the first help spawn the EcoHub project which is now doing well and has a site in the Market most Saturdays.

    The event is part of the Alliance’s efforts to see citizens more involved in the politics of our community and to try and get a higher standard of decision making. We are pleased that some councillors are planning to come which might help secure ideas such as citizen’s assemblies become a feature of how decisions are made locally.

    The event will be run much as before. We assemble in small groups of around 6 each and examine a range of cards with ideas where citizens have been involved in the democratic process. After discussion, each group will select 2 or 3 which they think might be of use and relevance locally. During a break, we look at other team’s efforts and come up with some final ideas. It’s both fun and has a serious intent.

    One of our aims is to move away from so-called ‘consultation’ exercises where plans and policies are presented for us to look at but where in fact decisions have largely been taken and other options may not even have been looked at.

    Interested? Then you need to book up using the following link:

    https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/new-local-politics-involving-citizens-in-local-decision-making-tickets-597656295067

    May we please ask that if you do book and are unable to come, to let us know so your space can be offered to someone else. Thanks. See you there.

    Photo: SDA

    We also run the Democracy Café which meets once a month in the Library. The next one is May 13th and starts at 10:00 am and finishes at noon. If you scan this site you will find reports of our previous meetings and the sorts of things we have discussed.

    PC

  • Second Talkshop event

    We are please to invite you to the second of our TALKSHOP events in collaboration with the RSA at 29 Brown Street between 10am and noon on Saturday 27 May. Last year’s event was very successful and resulted in the creation of the Eco Hub who have a presence in the Market Square.

    This time we will exploring how we can do politics differently in Salisbury and how we can engage more citizens in our local democracy. Participants will be given examples of how politics can work differently both from the UK and throughout the world and select some ideas that are achievable locally. You can find out more by clicking on the link above.

    More details will be provided soon.

  • Progress meeting

    Notes of a committee meeting to discuss progress with our various plans

    March 2023

    Eight of us met this week to discuss progress and make plans for forthcoming event. This is to keep the wider membership in the picture and is not meant to be an authoritative minute of the meeting. Also present were three members of RSA.

    Talkshop

    The main topic of conversation was around the next Talkshop event and we spent some time reviewing 60 cards with suggestions and possible projects. Some were of limited relevance to Salisbury but we still managed to identify two dozen possibles from the full list. After lengthy discussion we boiled it down to 4 possible topics:

    • Trying to include the voices and views of the ‘unheard’. These are people who are marginalised, who do not feel politics is for them, that their views are unwanted or who simply cannot engage because they cannot get out in the evening for example.
    • Involvement in the budgeting process. This might be ambitious since local government financing is highly technical and heavily constrained by Treasury rules. It was once said that only four people in the country understood local government finances and one of those was dead. It is worth serious consideration however as what is in the budget determines what does and doesn’t get done. And why shouldn’t citizens be involved?
    • Citizens’ juries and the need for: hardly any need to expand on this as it is our raison d’être.
    • Involving young people. It will be the young who inherit what we do now and their world is quite different from the generations which went before. Yet they are seldom seen when decisions are taken.

    We then spent some time discussing invitees which will include local politicians, Area Board people, Chambers, TUs. We discussed publicity and it will include posters in schools, the WCA newsletter, Transition City and no doubt others will be added at the planning stage. It will be a ticketed event.

    The objective was agreed: ‘to develop a set of policy objectives or projects involving local people and which could be implemented by Salisbury City Council and if necessary, Wiltshire Council’.

    It will run in Brown Street on May 27th from 10:00 ’till noon prompt.

    Planning

    It was brought to the group’s attention that in the last edition of The Planner, the journal of the Royal Town Planning Institute, there was a leading article on the subject of community involvement and citizen’s assemblies. It is likely that officers in WC planning dept. will have seen the article and it was agreed we would write to the head of planning suggesting a meeting to discuss. Update: letter sent 18th March copy below.

    Local Plan

    Consultation on the local plan was well underway and it was queried whether we should make some kind of response. The plan was well advance it was noted and it was suggested there were a number of shortcomings which will make its implementation problematic. See an earlier post and see also a response to our letter lamenting the lack of a citizens’ assembly during the preparation phase.

    Eco Hub stall

    We shared a stall in February in the Market Place and the results were a little disappointing. For next time the lessons learned were: sharing a stall does not work; there were too few flyers and we need something similar to the Brexitometer run by Salisbury for Europe that is, a board with options or questions to engage passers by.

    People in the Park

    Whether we should have a stall at this event again was discussed but the cost of insurance – which exhibitors have to pay themselves this year, means it is no longer viable.

    Democracy Café

    The last café was run the previous Saturday in the new venue in the Library. This had been a success although if numbers grew too large it might be a problem. The next meeting is on 8 April. A report of the last meeting can be read here.

    Generally we felt it had been a worthwhile meeting and plans for the second Talkshop look exciting. The next planning meeting is on 18 April at 14:00 probably in Brown Street (to be confirmed).

    PC

    Letter to Nic Thomas, WC Download

  • Talkshop – news

    Meeting held yesterday to take forward the Talkshop discussion

    A couple of Saturdays ago we held our first Talkshop in Salisbury which was very well attended. The discussion was lively and one of the topics to take forward from the ideas suggested was to form an Eco Hub (working title – it may change). This would be a place, possibly, where those interested in tackling the climate emergency could meet, exchange ideas or discuss this extremely important topic.

    The sub group met yesterday evening and 16 attended to begin to flesh out some ideas about how this might be taken forward. One ideas is for a stall in the market place which could take place once a month say. Other ideas were discussed and further work will now take place to put together some proposals and a business plan.

    Watch this space.

    PC

  • Successful Talkshop held!

    A successful Talkshop was held on Saturday 21 May on the subject of climate

    UPDATE 7 June 2022: a meeting is to be held this Thursday 9th June at 29 Brown St to discuss how to take the idea of an Eco Hub forward.

    A press release about our successful event was sent to the Salisbury Journal but they have declined to publish it in two editions of the paper.

    This was the first such event the Alliance has held and we are naturally delighted it went so well. Nearly 30 attended and there was lively conversation throughout the morning. The event came about as a cheaper means to contribute to the climate debate than the Citizens’ Assembly idea which we are still pursuing.

    Participants were divided into groups of half a dozen or so and issued with cards describing successful schemes established elsewhere in the country and some in USA. These were discussed and each table selected three they felt worth pursuing. We then walked around and looked at all the table’s suggestions and after discussion, formed two, new groups to take things forward.

    The most popular suggestion, attracting great interest, was the idea of an Eco Hub for the city. Essentially, a place where ideas can be discussed and exchanged as well as other more tangible ideas such as an Eco Café. A working group has been formed and will meet in a few weeks to discuss how the idea can be taken forward and made flesh.

    Another group discussed a series of linked ideas to make abandoned spaces into places where wildflowers can grow, trees planted or vegetables grown. It might be part of the Eco Hub in future.

    We must thank the RSA for their help in formulating the event and providing the rubric. We must also thank 29 Brown Street for providing the venue. More will be published about this as time goes by so watch this space. We were delighted that a Member from Salisbury City Council was there and took an active part in the proceedings.

    Pictures showing outside of 29 Brown Street and the Talkshop event about to start. Pictures: SDA

    Peter Curbishley

    UPDATE: 14 June 2022. This is the unpublished press release sent to the Salisbury Journal.

    SALISBURY Democracy Alliance held a successful Talkshop event at 29 Brown Street last week after which plans to form an Eco Hub were agreed. A Talkshop is a relatively new idea involving ordinary people in decision making and is a way of doing democracy differently.

    About 30 people attended and were given cards describing a range of successful environment projects which have been established in the UK and around the world. These were discussed in groups and two were finally selected. One is to establish an Eco Hub which will host practical projects and also to provide a meeting place for ideas and discussion. The second project discussed a series of linked ideas to make abandoned space into places where wildflowers can grow, trees to be planted or vegetables grown.

    Cllr John Wells, Chair of the City Council’s Environment and Climate Committee said “I was delighted to attend this event and found the ideas and discussion stimulating and interesting. I look forward to working with the Hub on projects relevant to the Council’s policies.”

    The Alliance were helped by the RSA, the Royal Society for Arts, Manufactures and Commerce who provided much useful advice.

    Mark Potts, Chair of SDA said ” we were delighted with how the event turned out and it was gratifying to see so many people engaged in eager debate about this important topic.” A meeting has been arranged between several of those present to take these ideas forward.

  • Future meetings

    We must apologise to those of you who have sent messages and have not received an answer. The menu field used to have a red spot to alert us to a message but for reasons unknown, it has stopped so we were not aware of people writing in. Apologies.

    Nearly all were asking ‘were we meeting’ and the answer is ‘yes’ and we are doing so at 29 Brown St in Salisbury. The Democracy Café meets at 10:00 on the second Saturday of the month so the next meeting is on June 11th. If things change then we will post something here as quickly as we can. With summer coming (brilliant sunshine as I type this) we are meeting outside but we can repair inside if it become inclement.

    This Saturday 21st May we are holding our first Talkshop event so you need to register quickly if you want to come. Details in a previous post.

  • Tackling the Climate Emergency

    Past event
    Event Run by the RSA and Salisbury Democracy Alliance  

    A Climate Emergency has been declared by Salisbury City Council and they are looking for local people to come up with ways of addressing it. We invite you to this event where you will find out what other cities are doing and have the opportunity to come up with ideas that could work in Salisbury or build on what is already here. The resources that we will be using and the methodology have been provided by Talkshop (www.talkshop.org), one of the partners of Salisbury Democracy Alliance. This is a golden opportunity to contribute to an important debate.

    Saturday 21st May 10.00 – 12.30 (Doors open at 9.30)

    29 Brown Street, Salisbury

    This event is being run by the Salisbury RSA Network and Salisbury Democracy Alliance (the same body that runs the regular Democracy Cafe here at Brown Street, part of The Chapel venue).  The SDA website is www.salisburydemocracyalliance.org. The Salisbury RSA website is https://www.thersa.org/fellowship/get-involved/rsa-networks/salisbury-network

    Places are limited and in order to book in to the event go to: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/tackling-the-climate-emergency-tickets-315205386797

    UPDATE: 5 May. Still a small number of places left.

  • Democracy Café

    The next session of the successful Democracy Café will be tomorrow Saturday, 9 April, 2022 starting at 10:00 for 2 hours (with a break). Attendance is free but if you can drop a groat or two into our collecting bins that would be appreciated. Also avail yourself of a drink of coffee or whatever as the host lets us use the facility for free – it all helps. It’s at 29 Brown St (the old Alzheimer building).

    We are moving forward with our plans to hold a Talkshop in May and no doubt there will be an update at the meeting.