Attending on the day were businesses and employers including South Downs Leisure, Shoreham Port and the University of Brighton, as well as representatives from charities and organisations including Community Works, Climate Resilience Centre Worthing, Guildcare, Greater Brighton Economic Board, Transition Town Worthing and Worthing & Adur Chamber of Commerce.  

During the event council leader Cllr Dr Beccy Cooper and Cllr John Turley, Worthing’s cabinet member for resources, introduced the core aspects of Doughnut Economics and explored how they could be applied to the council’s principles of being fair, green and local. 

There was also a chance for attendees to network with each other as well as delve into the principles in more detail through table-top discussions. 

The council is planning to host a series of events to explore more economic ideas and models with the community before undertaking design work and creating a practical plan of action that outlines how they could best serve Worthing.

Cllr Cooper said: “Doughnut Economics aims to meet the needs of people within the needs of the planet, which mirrors our ambition to create an economy that is fair, green and local. We want to explore how this, and other complementary approaches such as community wealth building, can feed into our policies going forward. 

“As a council for the community, we want our businesses, residents and community groups  to be involved from the start. It was great to see so many people come along for the first event and hear plenty of lively and insightful discussions taking place.”

For more information on Doughnut Economics please visit https://doughnuteconomics.org/.

To read about Worthing Borough Council’s economic principles, please visit https://democracy.adur-worthing.gov.uk/documents/s9521/Item%208%20-%20New%20Economic%20Principles%20for%20Worthing.pdf.