Established by a group of Harrogate people who want the best for their town, we dislike the tone of debate on social media. Skilfully deployed, we know that the right technology can be a force for good in our town.

After extensive research, we found the best political tech in the world: Polis. Polis has been used by the British and Taiwanese governments, to harvest the best ideas and to find consensus over thorny issues.

Harrogate District Consensus provides a free, safe and sensible space where the tricky issues affecting Harrogate are uncovered, considered and surveyed, with the data transparently released to everyone in Harrogate.

We are not aligned with any political party. We are staffed by volunteers, with backgrounds in technology, Harrogate podcasting, business, law and data science, and run by Harrogate’s Crowd Wisdom Project.

We seek engagement with all groups within our town and with all residents. The views of our moderators do not influence the conversations which we host. We commit to transparently release the data and the final consensus, from all our conversations.

Moderation Policy

When moderating, we do not permit statements which are:

  • Questions, rather than statements.
  • Anything defamatory, hostile, offensive or unlawful.
  • Wildly off-topic.
  • Patently erroneous.
  • Identifies the statement-maker.
  • Is unnecessarily targeted at an individual.

Polis conversations take a little time to get used to. Often, people make excellent points, but which are poorly expressed. We therefore reserve the right to rephrase statements, in order to help the conversation to flow.