Higher Folds is a small community trying big ideas and Saturday 17th January 2015 was a special day in the life of the Higher Folds Community Centre. Higher Folds “We Decide” became a reality and local groups really did benefit. After nine months of consulting and working with the community the first “We Decide” event… Read More
News
Latest news about Participatory Budgeting
Report on Paris: ‘largest’ participatory budget in Europe
Paris has been experimenting with PB. Despite some criticism the initiative started as too ‘top down’, over years it promises to change the way Parisians engage with their city. Mayor Hidalgo has committed to invest 426 million euros from now until 2020, about 5 percent of the entire city budget. In a recent report by… Read More
New York expands PB in new social housing programme
New York has been pioneering a massive PB initiative over the last few years and this continues to grow. New York City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito recently announced in her State of the City address that the Council will appropriate new funding in the FY 2016 budget to expand the Participatory Budgeting (PB) process to… Read More
Tower Hamlets “You Decide!”
In Tower Hamlets, a Participatory Budgeting project known as “You Decide!” was carried out across the whole Borough in 2009 and 2010. The Cabinet allocated £2.38 million per year for a two year period (total of £4.76 million) with £300,000 added by the local Primary Care Trust (PCT) in year two. A total of over… Read More
180 Feock residents take part in "Your Choice"
Feock Parish Council has handed out funding to a raft of local groups, with 180 people in the area helping decide who should share the cash. Successful groups last year were the 1st Devoran Brownies, 1st Devoran Rainbows, 17th Truro Scout Group (Devoran), Devoran Village Hall, Up the Creek Theatre Productions, St Feock PALS, Devoran… Read More
International report indicates budget engagement increases tax collection rates
Tiago Peixoto is regarded as one of the leading commentators and experts on Participatory Budgeting, not least through his work with the World Bank and elsewhere. In a new blog he cites recent international research on the relationship between engagement and increased satisfaction with local governance, especially in relation to a willingness to pay more… Read More
Local Democracy for Everyone, Conference and workshops, 7th Feb 2015
Would you like to change one small thing (or change the whole system) to make democracy work better for all of us? This event is for everyone who has something positive to say about local democracy and for anyone who is up for a challenge. Not enough of us are interested in local decision making… Read More
Change the Grange Winners Announced
The eight projects with the highest number of votes by the community of The Grange in Runcorn were announced at an event held last night at the Grange Youth Hub by Cheshire’s Police & Crime Commissioner John Dwyer. “I was proud to announce the winning projects as they are all worthy causes covering a wide… Read More
Youth focussed Participatory Budgeting in Colwyn Bay in 5th year and growing
Colwyn Bay Town Council will be running a fifth round of its Participatory Budgeting Programme. A programme that could reach a total of over £50,000 across neighbourhood 4 areas. Colwyn Bay is focusing on projects that support young people. Residents and local groups are being asked to decide who receives support through the initiative, which… Read More
Participatory Budgeting Improves Public Service Delivery
A report by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDP) provides a systematic overview of many international experiences of Participatory Budgeting (PB). While it is similar to many academic and governmental reports in that it qualifies its findings overall it concludes that PB does improve decentralized public service delivery. Put simply … involving citizens in deciding on… Read More