Image courtesy of the Cheshire PCC Crewe PB Programme 2015
Cheshire police and crime commissioner John Dwyer announced on the 8th August that he intends to ask residents how to spend £20,000 of his crime prevention budget in a community project in central Crewe … and 3 more areas are set to benefit later in the year. The money could be spent on a healthy living project, community art scheme, crime prevention or lunch club, for just a few examples. Ideas will come from the community and be decided by the community
Mr Dwyer said “Participatory budgeting directly involves local people in making decisions on the spend and priorities for their area and I want to use this way of allocating public money in Crewe. During the following weeks, application forms will be delivered to every home in the area and they can be downloaded from my website www.cheshire-pcc.gov.uk .”
“Projects could be for anything that benefits the community whether it’s an event for young people, a healthy living project, a crime prevention idea, a lunch club for older residents, a community art project, the only limit is your imagination. There are some basic criteria about what we will fund but these are also available on the website.
“I am really excited about this project as it is the people who will vote on the projects and decide where the money gets spent. If you can convince your neighbours that your idea is a good one, your project will get the cash.”
Last year saw a pilot that invested £30,000 in The Grange area of Runcorn where over 700 people got involved. Following the success of this pilot project, which showed high levels of community engagement and improved community relations, the Police and Crime Commissioner agreed to undertake and complete four more participatory budgeting processes in 2015, one in each of the four Borough Council areas.
- Find out more on the commissioners interest in PB on the Cheshire PCC website
- Download forms and specific information on the Crewe programme
