Crowdfunder campaign gathers momentum

Kendal Town Council’s crowdfunder for a Citizen’s Jury has already raised over 60% of funds needed with 115 supporters and just 14 days left.

There are 47 comments from contributors, indicating a real belief in this process as a way of community engagement in our future. All these comments will be displayed at the Jury meetings.
Climate change will be the biggest factor to influence business and community in the next 10 years. The challenges we face need to be a genuine community response and it is likely that local businesses will find real opportunities amongst the challenges.

The Citizen’s Jury in Leeds, for example, proposed a local investment fund and a green bond available for the local community to invest in.
We are now looking to both individuals and businesses to help complete our funding over the next 2 weeks. Small contributions with a supportive comment are welcomed as much as larger ones, as one of our aims is to demonstrate wide support and understanding of this issue from business as well as individuals.

Simon Blunden of Miller Clear Architects said”We are donating to the crowdfunder as we see it as a fantastic opportunity to empower the local community. As a small business we rely on a thriving town and the citizen’s jury will help propose ways in which the local council can support and protect us in the future.”

In April 2019 Kendal Town Council declared a Climate Emergency and since then we have been looking at ways to implement change. A Citizen’s Jury is a central part of informing that change.

Many Kendal residents are also worried about climate change. What are the impacts? What should we do? Who should do what? What can I do? These are just some of the questions we need to answer.
Kendal Town Council now want to take the next step and find out what action local people want to take to tackle climate change. We are calling for help to raise funds to organise the UK’s first ever Climate Change Citizens’ Jury at town level.

A ‘Jury’ of 20 randomly selected residents, who will be a mini version of Kendal’s population with a wide range of ages and opinions on climate change, will call on the help of experts to look at the causes, impacts and recommend potential solutions to the climate emergency.
Kendal Town Council have committed funding together with South Lakeland District Council. So far we have 50% of the amount needed. In order to raise the remaining funds we are setting up a Crowdfunding page. This will go live on Saturday 1stFebruary at 12.00 middayand will be open for the month of February. We are urging any businesses or individuals who wish to support our work to donate via this page. The Crowdfunder site – A Kendal Peoples’ Plan for Climate Emergency – can be found here.

The Mayor of Kendal, Councillor Alvin Finch said “With the scale and urgency of climate breakdown very clear, I am pleased to see this cross party initiative, developed with expert local advice, being launched this week. Hopefully this campaign will enable us to not only reach our financial goal but also engage our community in the most important issue it faces in the next 10 years.”

The Chair of KTC’s Environment & Highways Committee, Councillor Jon Owen added “We’ve been delighted to receive financial support from both the Town and District Councils towards the cost of a Climate Change Citizen’s Jury. We’re launching this Crowdfunder to ‘get us over the line’ in terms of funding, optimistic that residents and businesses will donate during February to make Kendal the first town in the UK to work to achieve net zero through people power.”

Date: 28 January 2020