Tag: Participatory Budgeting

Have your say on… A Participatory Budgeting Charter for Scotland

Participatory Budgeting has been an important feature of community life in Leith for a number of years, with hundreds of members of community being actively involved local decision making.  Leith Links Community Council is proud to have been involved with various Participatory Budgeting processes over recent years including Leith Decides, Community Links Fund and Leith Chooses.

Nationally there has been a concerted effort to encourage & develop Participatory Budgeting and there is now an opportunity for our community to be involved.

A PB Charter would set out clear principles which could be used by strategic managers, those involved in planning PB and by people attending PB events or voting online to ensure that positive outcomes are achieved, and that good quality democratic participation is promoted in every community.

The Charter would be a formal statement of values & principles which will ensure good quality PB in Scotland.

Leith Links Community Council would encourage you take part in the brief survey being undertaken by the Scottish Centre for Developing Communities which can be accessed by clicking here.

Examples of Leith focused Participatory Budgeting

 

Examples of Edinburgh based Participatory Budgeting

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£EITH CHOOSES – Local Democracy in Action!

Your Leith Links Community Councillors were out in force yesterday helping to run the amazing £eith Chooses Voting day. It was hard work but it was terrific fun. We love to meet up with our community!

This year’s voting day was a record-breaker in every sense of the word – more posters, leaflets, lamppost wraps; more project applications than ever before; more money to be distributed (though still still not enough, sadly); more new project groups applying; more diverse projects, in terms of minority groups in our community; and more people attending to vote than ever before! (Also more worry and panic, before the day, right up to the very last minute, due to the horrendous snowy weather and difficult conditions for getting about.) We are also now shaping up to see more online votes than ever before rolling in.

Many thanks also to our friends and colleagues from Leith Harbour and Newhaven, and Leith Central Community Councils, who have been helping to organise £eith Chooses and were also there yesterday to help.

People possibly don’t realise that a large part of all of this is done by volunteers! Having said that, Leith Links Community Council and fellow Community Councils certainly couldn’t have put on this whole event without our close partnership with Edinburgh City Council and their dedicated and super-hard-working staff team. And last but not least, our great elected representatives (some of whom were last seen shovelling snow in the Kirkgate!) from Leith and Leith Walk: Marion, Chas, Susan, Amy, Adam, Gordon.

We ALL worked hard for our amazing Leith community, and it was great!

The strapline on our Leith Links community Council bid to the Scottish Government Community Grants Fund (which brought us £72.000 for community projects) was ‘Local Democracy in Action’. Well, it certainly was, yesterday.

MSP Ben MacPherson seems to like £eith Chooses as much as everybody else did.

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£EITH CHOOSES voting!

Applications are now closed for £eith Chooses. Thank you to all applicants for choosing to participate and for making the effort to meet the somewhat tight deadline.

The next bit is the really fun bit!  Come along to the Leith Community Centre (Kirkgate) on Saturday 3rd March, meet the applicants, hear/chat informally about all the great projects on offer, and cast your votes for your favourites!  We also have free food and refreshments, face-painting, glitter tattoos and balloon modelling to tempt all the family to come and join in. (Leithers over 8 can vote)

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£EITH CHOOSES – accepting applications NOW!

There is £116,000 available for community projects in Leith. 

Applications for £EITH CHOOSES are being accepted NOW – and there is not much time to get them in – deadline is 31 January 2018.

Download Guidance and Application Forms here.

Voting will be in March 2018.

Support Sessions are offered 12-2, and 5-7 Monday -Thursday between now and 31st January – check details of time and place here. Please come along and talk to us, and get your application in order.

Keep up to date via the £EITH CHOOSES own website,  Facebook and Twitter.

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LEITH CHOOSES LAUNCH, WEDNESDAY 22 NOVEMBER

The three Leith Community Councils are teaming up with City of Edinburgh Council to create a pot of cash for the community in Leith, based on Scottish Government ‘Community Choices’funding.

Applications for £EITH CHOOSES will be invited very soon, and voting will be in March 2018. Many things will be similar to previous £eith Decides but there are a few exciting changes too.

The project Launch & first Funding Workshop will be held on 22nd November in Leith Community Education Centre, New Kirkgate, at 6.00pm.

Come along and find out more!

Keep up to date via Facebook and Twitter, or download the press release.

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Aged 11 – 25? Join in the big vote party

Young people in Edinburgh are being asked to vote on projects to deliver youth work across the city. During February 2017, the the City of Edinburgh Council invited groups to apply for up to £10,000 to spend on youth work activity that will benefit young people between 11-25, either locally based or citywide.

The applications were screened at the beginning of March by a group of young people and City of Edinburgh Council officers, based on priorities that were decided by young people following a consultation in 2016.

This is the first year of a three year programme, with 60k to allocate this year, rising to over 100k in year 2, and over 500k in year 3.

A total of 16 projects will now face a public vote. It is now up to you to decide which of these projects you would like to see being delivered. If you are aged between 11-21, and live in Edinburgh, you can vote for your three preferred projects.

Voting opens at 12noon on Friday 10 March and closes at 5pm on Monday 27 March 2017.

You can vote:

Results will be announced in April and projects will begin from May 2017. This is your chance to decide how money is spent that benefits you.

If you have a Young Scot card, when you vote online you will also receive reward points and these can be redeemed against a range of awards. You can find out more about Young Scot here.

If you would like to find out more, please contact CF.Commissioning@edinburgh.gov.uk

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192 people cast 1467 votes to decide who gets Community Links Funding

Our Community Links Fund social voting day was a overwhelming success with 192 people casting 1467 votes to decide who should receive over £15,000 of funding.

With thirty three projects seeking funding competition is tough but the community of the Leith Links Community Council area took the time to meet the projects before casting their votes.  A face painter and two social cafe areas were available to ensure the day was as much about bringing the community together, as it was to vote.

Online voting remains open until 12noon on Wednesday 15 March 2017, with results announced on Thursday 16 March, from 18:30 in Leith Community Education Centre.

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