Street Voice: a Citizens’ Jury for Headington

The Global Centre on Healthcare and Urbanisation hosted its first Street Voice Citizens’ Jury on Sunday as Jurors met to consider, “How can we travel where we need to in Oxford in a way that’s good for health and the climate?”

If you’re on Twitter, you can stay updated on the progress of the sessions by following @GCHUOxford.

You can also find resources and watch content from the sessions here:

Street Voice: Resources – Global Centre on Healthcare and Urbanisation

Global Centre on Healthcare and Urbanisation Kellogg College, University of Oxford

Information on the project

The project will take place over four sessions from June to July.

According to the organisers of the initiative, the Global Centre on Healthcare and Urbanisation at Kellogg College and the Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences,

“Traffic and travel have an impact on people’s health and climate change, but it can be difficult to find transport policy solutions that work for everyone. All voices need to be heard on this issue, and citizens’ juries are a tried and tested, inclusive and balanced method that help communities solve local problems.

Our aim is to create an opportunity for local residents to understand each other’s views and experiences, and to reach decisions that people can agree on about how to make Oxford an inclusive, fair and safe place to move around in ways that are good for people’s health and the environment. We hope it will help to deepen democracy and empower local people.

An Advisory Group which includes local campaigners, councillors and academics ensures that the process is fair and unbiased. They oversee the selection of jurors and the “expert witnesses” who will share information with the jurors. The process will be run entirely independently of Oxfordshire County Council, but the Jury’s recommendations will be presented to the Council.”

Jury of Headington residents

The small-scale Citizens’ Jury will be formed by a stratified random sample of 16 residents from Headington and surrounding areas:

“The Headington area has been chosen as the site for this project because there are plans to consult on the introduction of new traffic schemes there in the near future. People from 2000 households in Headington, Barton, Sandhills, Northway, Quarry and Risinghurst have been invited to register their interest. 16 local residents from all walks of life will be chosen by “civic lottery” to form the “jury” to reflect the population of Oxford in terms of age, sex, ethnicity, disability and concern about climate change.”