Participatory Budgeting Fills the Village Hall
For groups in the rural parts of Sheffield, participatory budgeting (PB) is proving a huge success. Under the slightly friendlier title ‘You Choose’, groups in each Council Ward can bid for up to £2,000 for their activities. With a total of around £10,000 available, this is serious money to support local community action.
Key to the process is not the assessment of an application form, but the votes of the local community, which leads to venues for the meetings being packed out. There are often upwards of 100 people attending, including a lot of children and young people.
PB has been trialled previously by RAY across North Yorkshire, where parish councils were encouraged to generate project ideas from their local community, with the successful ones decided by votes cast by the public at a meeting. A consequence of this, above the benefit to the successful group, was the raised profile of the parish council, and the extra interest generated in what it did and how it worked. Sheffield City Council obviously has considerable resources, and can offer larger amounts, and the interest and enthusiasm generated by the process is correspondingly higher.
This is what happens:
1. Groups complete a simple application form, which is then checked by council staff.
2. At the ‘You Choose’ event, everyone signs in; those living in the area and aged 11 or over are issued with voting slips
3. All groups then do a short presentation on what they do and what they want the money for.
4. Everyone completes their voting slip. A key point is that voters must rank all projects for their vote to count – this avoids the groups with the most supporters present winning automatically.
5. Votes are counted, and money allocated to the groups with the most votes. Groups find out there and then who has been successful.
You wouldn’t describe it as a perfect process – sometimes things that might be considered the council’s responsibility are funded (eg hanging baskets in the local shopping centre). Activities involving children invariably do well (particularly the group who gave out cakes to the audience at the end of their presentation!) and some valuable but not ‘populist’ projects don’t get funded.
However, the failings are vastly outweighed by the interest and enthusiasm generated, not just in the activities, but in what other groups are doing, in how the council has involved people in the process, and the powerful idea of local people given a direct say in how some council money is allocated. You are never likely to see so many people responding so enthusiastically to an invitation to attend a public meeting.
Key to the process is not the assessment of an application form, but the votes of the local community, which leads to venues for the meetings being packed out. There are often upwards of 100 people attending, including a lot of children and young people.
PB has been trialled previously by RAY across North Yorkshire, where parish councils were encouraged to generate project ideas from their local community, with the successful ones decided by votes cast by the public at a meeting. A consequence of this, above the benefit to the successful group, was the raised profile of the parish council, and the extra interest generated in what it did and how it worked. Sheffield City Council obviously has considerable resources, and can offer larger amounts, and the interest and enthusiasm generated by the process is correspondingly higher.
This is what happens:
1. Groups complete a simple application form, which is then checked by council staff.
2. At the ‘You Choose’ event, everyone signs in; those living in the area and aged 11 or over are issued with voting slips
3. All groups then do a short presentation on what they do and what they want the money for.
4. Everyone completes their voting slip. A key point is that voters must rank all projects for their vote to count – this avoids the groups with the most supporters present winning automatically.
5. Votes are counted, and money allocated to the groups with the most votes. Groups find out there and then who has been successful.
You wouldn’t describe it as a perfect process – sometimes things that might be considered the council’s responsibility are funded (eg hanging baskets in the local shopping centre). Activities involving children invariably do well (particularly the group who gave out cakes to the audience at the end of their presentation!) and some valuable but not ‘populist’ projects don’t get funded.
However, the failings are vastly outweighed by the interest and enthusiasm generated, not just in the activities, but in what other groups are doing, in how the council has involved people in the process, and the powerful idea of local people given a direct say in how some council money is allocated. You are never likely to see so many people responding so enthusiastically to an invitation to attend a public meeting.
