We have been undertaking a ‘People’s Inquiry’. Over the past three months an independent group of thirty ordinary members of the public have come together to address the issues of climate change in Warwick District.

What is a people's inquiry?

Our People's Inquiry has been a way of involving members of the public to help make important decisions, to talk about an important issue and share ideas over a number of separate sessions (in our case there have been 10 online sessions). The overall aim has been for the group to come up with a set of recommendations to inform our future Climate Change Action Plan to be adopted by the Council by May 2021.

How was the inquiry panel selected?

A random selection of 5,000 residents were sent letters asking whether they would like to take part in our inquiry. We received more than 500 responses from which we selected a thirty people who reflected the district’s population in terms of age, gender, ethnicity, geography and attitude to climate change.

Why we decided to do it?

We declared a Climate Emergency in June 2019 and did not want the declaration to be empty words. Instead, along with many others in the District, we have been keen to do what we can to combat climate change and reduce our carbon footprint. Although work is progressing on a number of projects, the People’s Inquiry has been an important part of helping to shape our current work and future plans. 

By involving ordinary people from all walks of life in advising local politicians and decision making has really helped to pull down barriers and increase our understanding from all viewpoints and perspectives.