Wasdale Citizens Panel
The Wasdale Citizens Panel will provide a focussed group of residents with a chance to discuss “How do we get the best out of our visitors in Wasdale, so we thrive as a community?” and make recommendations to local authorities about how they should act in response.
The panel reflects the demographic profile of the local population in as far as is possible in a small, defined area.
The question for the panel to consider was agreed by The Advisory Group, made up of representatives from the local community and public sectors. They will make sure the panel is run fairly.
Why is a Citizens Panel happening?
Visitor pressure in Wasdale and how to alleviate it has been discussed for many years with measures put in place to ease the situation, but it continues to be a pressing concern of those who live and work in the valley. The Lake District National Park Authority asked ACTion with Communities in Cumbria to meet with residents of Wasdale and explore options on how to improve visitor management in the valley. They did this and Wasdale Parish Meeting were excited by a Citizens Panel.
How is it funded?
This work has been funded by the Esmee Fairbairn Foundation who are supporting ACT to work with members of the Lake District National Park Partnership and Lake District communities, to tackle difficult conversations from a fresh perspective. Shared Future, a not-for-profit company based in the Northwest, has been appointed to facilitate the Wasdale Citizens Panel.
The company is a leader in the fields of participatory budgeting and citizen juries and have partnered with many local authorities to deliver citizen assemblies, juries and panels, including Blackburn with Darwen Council, Bude Council, and more locally Kendal Council and the Copeland Council.
Panel members will come together for six sessions over a two-month period to hear from a range of commentators about visitor pressures in Wasdale, discuss what they hear and agree a set of recommendations for local action in response.
Content from the delivered Sessions
Session 1
- Welcome and Introduction: Brief Q&A with Steve Ratcliffe, Director of Planning and Partnerships at the Lake District National Park.
- What to expect in the Citizens Panel.
- Mapping: exploring issues (good things and bad things) that affect the community.
- Who else would we like in the room and how can we reach them?
See the slide presentation on What is a Citizens Panel?
Session 2
There were no external contributors to this session. Focus was on identifying the themes to focus on over the next few sessions, in particular, which organisations or people may be able to help the group explore possible solutions by sharing their knowledge or experience.
- Welcome and introduction
- Review mapping of positive and negative. Show 'who lives here'.
- Use a Problem Tree to explore root causes of pressures on the valley.
- What will the community of the valley look like if it's thriving, and who has the power to make change happen?
- Bring forward priority issues to explore in more depth.
Session 3
This session concentrated on questions around traffic and parking, identified as a major theme in session 2. There were three brief inputs and very informative question and answer time where panel members were able to go deeper into the things that interested them.
Recordings of each of the inputs are included here, along with the slides used, where appropriate. With thanks to the commentators:
- Gemma Procter, Sustainable Tourism Officer for Cumbria Tourism. Video
- Emma Moody, Lead Strategy Advisor, Recreation and Sustainable Transport, Lake District National Park Authority. Video.
- Alistair Kirkbride, researcher and consultant on visitor travel and transport in rural areas. Video
See slides from Gemma, Here.
See slides from Alistair, Here.
Session 4
This session concentrated on questions around fly-camping, littering and toilets, identified as major themes in session 2. There were three brief inputs with time for questions so panel members could find out more about the things that interested them.
Recordings of each of the inputs are included here. With thanks to the commentators:
- Neil Thirkell, Lead Ranger (West Lakes) National Trust. Video.
- Tony Watson, Head of Visitor Services Lake District National Park Authority. (To follow)
- Matt Buckland, Visitor Operations Manager Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park. Video.
Neil Thirkell, National Trust
Matt Buckland, Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park
Session 5
As agreed by the group at the previous session, the central question for this session was 'How do we make sure the people of Wasdale are central to the way that future plans are made?' There were three short inputs from commentators, followed by questions and discussion.
Recordings of each of the inputs are included here. With thanks to the commentators:
- Daniel Holder, Sustainable Integrated Transport for Ullswater and The Quiet Site. Video.
- Lorrainne Smyth, CEO ACTion with Communities in Cumbria - on communities planning for the future. Video.
- Lorrainne Smyth, CEO ACTion with Communities in Cumbria - on communities working with partners. Video.
Daniel Holder, SITU and The Quiet Site
Lorrainne Smyth, ACT CEO
Session 6 - Agreeing Recommendations
After a further deliberative session, the group were able to agree on and prioritise 9 recommendations and a shared Statement. Recommendations focus on action on toilets, fly camping and visitor travel. They also suggest ways for the community to organise itself, to ensure that it is at the heart of decision making that affects the valley. You can read the full report on the Wasdale Citizens' Panel including the recommendations, how they were ranked by participants, and a range of comments from the participants about the recommendations.
Thankyou to everyone who took part in the process - community members, commentators and stakeholders who are now taking action with the community. Also to Shared Future CIC.
The group Statement is here:
'We are a diverse group of people (including residents, people in farming, hospitality, retail etc) who love, and depend on and shape our beautiful valley. Our valley is a working and living environment. It is an internationally recognised, rugged but managed landscape whose tranquility is so valued by us and our visitors.
We recognise the huge value of our visitors and the vital role they play in our livelihoods. We must take action to preserve the beauty of Wasdale at the same time as manage the increasing visitor numbers sustainably. Visitor pressure brings problems which need addressing, for example, traffic.
However, in deciding action we must be clear about how big these problems are and what impact they are having now, as well as in the future.
Those of us who live and work here understand the pressures on our valley and so we must be at the centre of decisions that affect Wasdale. We want to make sure that this becomes a reality. We are optimistic that we can make progress as a group that continues to meet, to ensure that the people of Wasdale are able to shape a future vision and positive solutions for the valley.
However for this to happen we must find ways for all in the valley to have a voice from all parts of the valley.
We want to work with others (such as the National Park and the National Trust) to make this a reality. We appreciate that resources are stretched, but believe that working together, so that we are at the centre of decisions, we will be able to help these and other agencies in their work.'
