Bude Area Community Jury
on Climate Change

Why does the Bude Area need a Community Jury?

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In the future, the changing climate will significantly alter how Bude's coastline looks. We are not alone. Coastlines all around the world are experiencing increasing erosion and flooding due to sea level rise and other climate change factors.

 

In Bude, situated right beside the full force of the Atlantic, we're all too familiar with the impact of coastal storms. And as climate change makes weather patterns more extreme, we can expect an increase in the frequency, severity and damage caused by these storms. Within 50 years, the kind of storms that currently have a 1% chance of happening in any one year, could become annual events.​

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​If we want to be resilient to climate change, to protect our community and create a sustainable coastal frontage, we need to adapt - and we'd love everyone to get involved and decide together how we can mitigate the impacts of a changing climate in our beautiful corner of north Cornwall. 

 

What do we want for our shoreline? Where do our priorities lie? Should we maintain a sandy beach? Sustain our tourism infrastructure? Explore opportunities for softer landscaping and rewilding, for example? What can we do to protect our community's economy, infrastructure, way of life?

 

And, Bude has a unique opportunity to have these very conversations because as part of one of our key projects, the Shoreline Engagement Project, we are holding a Community Jury for the whole wider Bude area. It is very rare for a small community such as ours to hold a Community Jury, so we urge you to sign up, get involved and be part of the face of change.

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What is a Community Jury?

A Community Jury is a way of talking about a vital issue - a forum where we can really have our say on the future direction of our town and surrounding parishes. It's a small group of people, randomly selected to represent the demographics of a given area. They get together to discuss and debate 'one clear question'. The jury takes 'evidence' and advice from 'witnesses' - experts in their field who can offer guidance on the issues arising around the question. And at the end of the process, the jury produces a set of recommendations that represent the democratic voice of the community, recommendations that will be used to affect change. 

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THE QUESTION FOR THE JURY

HOW CAN WE RESPOND TO A CHANGING CLIMATE, INCLUDING SEA LEVEL RISE, TO SUPPORT OUR COMMUNITY TO THRIVE?

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If you'd like to find out more about what our Community Jury looks like, why not watch The People vs Climate? In what's described as a "surprising and funny documentary, 108 ordinary Brits are tasked with deciding what we should do to meet our climate change goals in the UK’s first ever Citizen's Assembly on Climate Change". Watch it below.