This spring Rochdale Boroughwide Housing (RBH) once again rolled out their award-winning “Our Choice” project, which gives residents control of how money is spent improving their neighbourhoods. £47,000 of funding to thirteen neighbourhoods was up for grabs and only local people could decide how it was spent. Since 2013 more than £120,000 has been distributed… Read More
News
Latest news about Participatory Budgeting
Dereham goes interactive: the first text-voting PB programme in the UK?
‘InterACTIVE funding’ was part of a recent £50,000 Participatory Budgeting (PB) scheme across Breckland, Norfolk, delivered by local organisations in partnership with the Breckland Pride Board. Cllr Lynda Turner, Breckland Council Executive Member for Community and Environmental Services said: “This is a fantastic opportunity for clubs and organisations that just need a little funding to… Read More
Can participatory budgeting support a more open government?
At a meeting in early March 2015 of the OGP civil society network, Sue Ritchie, acting chair of the PB Network, posed the radical idea of 1% of all public expenditure being decided through an open, participatory democracy process , based on PB best practice around the world. This in turn stimulated a blog by Oliver… Read More
Due North Health Equity report recommends more participatory budgeting
Due North: The report of the Inquiry on Health Equity for the North, published last year, makes a number of important recommendations for reducing health inequalities base don expert witnesses and background research. The Inquiry was commissioned by Public Health England (PHE) and led by an independent panel of leading academics, policy makers and practitioners…. Read More
Levenshulme Market Fund: An innovation in grass-roots Participatory Budgeting
Levenshulme Market is a social enterprise based in Manchester, that has established a successful community market. It recently held what is probably the first social enterprise led and funded grassroots participatory grant making programme. Using funds generated from within the local community through hiring their market stalls to small businesses throughout the previous year. Money… Read More
Higher Folds We Decide: Police and community working together
A ‘hot off the press’ video of a recent Police led £20,000 participatory budgeting (PB) event on the Higher Folds estate, near Wigan. One part of a wider initiative that saw PB grant making projects take place across Greater Manchester in the winter of 2014/15. That altogether distributed well over £250,000 for community projects into… Read More
Thinkpiece on democratic innovation published by Foreign Affairs website
In an article published on the 11th March 2015 on the respected Foreign Affairs website, Paolo Spada and Hollie Russon Gilman provide a overview of the development of participatory budgeting (PB) in the city of Porto Alegre, Brazil since the late 1980’s. They consider what’s been achieved in the birthplace of PB, as it evolves… Read More
Online tools for Participatory Democracy
Nesta is a respected champion of innovation, new technology and online collaboration. As part of its series of ‘Tech4labs’ briefings it presents a helpful description of the differences between representative, direct and participatory democracy. As well as a review of a number of online platforms and tools for stimulating online deliberation, decision making and networking…. Read More
Windsor and Maidenhead’s online rolling PB programme 2015
Online voting is now open for the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead’s online PB-style neighbourhood grants process. Up to £50,000 is available in 2015 and supported by information posted on the council’s website local people are able to vote using an online survey. The neighbourhood PB scheme is geared towards assisting local residents and… Read More
Beyond cynicism and complacency – Participatory Budgeting in Scotland
A new blog by Oliver Escobar, Lecturer in Public Policy at the University of Edinburgh, explores the development of participatory budgeting in Scotland. Oliver is part of a small working group convened by the Scottish Governemnt that is looking to support the role out of new PB experiences over the coming year and beyond. As well… Read More