A message from Richard Garland and Polly Keane
Hello,
Thank you for taking a few minutes to watch the video above.
We know that receiving a letter inviting you to take part in the Eastbourne People’s Panel might come as a surprise, especially if you’ve never heard of something like this before. That’s exactly why we’ve created this short video – to explain how the process works, why people have been selected at random, and what taking part would actually involve.
The Eastbourne People’s Panel is a new way of involving local people in decisions that matter.
Over the next ten years, Eastbourne has the opportunity to invest up to £20 million through the Government’s Pride in Place Programme funding programme. We want those decisions to be informed not just by organisations and local leaders, but by the people who know Eastbourne best – the people who live here.
To do that fairly, we’ve used a process called sortition (sometimes known as a civic lottery). Instead of asking for volunteers, 7,500 households across Eastbourne have been chosen at random from the Royal Mail address database. This gives people from all walks of life an equal opportunity to take part and helps create a panel that reflects the town as a whole.
If you’ve received an invitation, it doesn’t mean you’ve already been selected for the panel. It simply means your household has been randomly chosen to enter the next stage. Everyone aged 18 or over living at your address can register their interest. An independent organisation, the Sortition Foundation, will then carry out a second random draw to select a final panel of 25 residents that closely represents Eastbourne’s population.
If you’re selected, you’ll join 24 other local people for four sessions during September and October. You’ll hear from a range of speakers, learn more about the opportunities and challenges facing Eastbourne, ask questions, share your own experiences and work together to develop recommendations for the Eastbourne Neighbourhood Board.
You don’t need any special knowledge or experience to take part. In fact, that’s the whole point. We’re not looking for experts – we’re looking for everyday people with different backgrounds, experiences and opinions who care about where they live.
The People’s Panel has been independently designed and will be facilitated by New Citizen Project, whose role is to make sure everyone has the chance to take part in an open, balanced and respectful conversation. Our job is to create a process where every voice can be heard and where people have the information they need to make informed recommendations.
If you’ve received an invitation, we hope you’ll consider registering your interest. Whether or not you’re eventually selected, simply putting your name forward helps make the process as representative as possible.
Thank you for taking the time to learn more about the Eastbourne People’s Panel. We hope you’ll join us in helping shape the future of our town.
Richard Garland
Chair, Eastbourne Neighbourhood Board
Polly Keane
Client Partner, New Citizen Project