Localities and UKSPF Participatory Budgeting – only three days left to vote!
Posted on 8 Nov 2023
Calling all North Ayrshire residents! The voting stage of North Ayrshire Council’s Participatory Budgeting scheme is now well underway, so don’t miss the chance to have a say on where the cash is spent in your area.
Voting is open across three categories: Localities, Youth and a new category for this year – the UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF) – where community groups can team up together on an event, cause or project for the common good.
Young people aged 8-25 will make the decision on the projects being funded for Youth PB, with voting on the Young Scot website and in schools. Voting for Locality PB and UK Shared Prosperity Fund PB will be open to all North Ayrshire residents.
North Ayrshire residents in the North Coast and Cumbrae, Arran, Irvine, Kilwinning, Three Towns and the Garnock Valley have until 5pm on Friday, November 10 to vote for Localities and UKSPF funding.
If you know someone who is unable to vote online, please encourage them to visit their local North Ayrshire Library who can help them get online: Find a library (north-ayrshire.gov.uk)
With Youth PB launching this week as part of National Youth Work Week 2023, young people aged between eight and 25-years-old have more time to cast their votes via the Young Scot platform: https://voting.young.scot/
The deadline for Youth PB voting is 8pm on Sunday November, 19. Once logged in, young people will also have the opportunity to use the Young Scot platform to cast their votes for their preferred Scottish Youth Parliament candidates in this November’s elections, representing Cunninghame North and Cunninghame South. Find more about the candidates here: https://tinyurl.com/CunninghameNorthSouth23
Schools in the area will also encourage voting for PB and SYP during the school day, in school or as part of regular virtual classroom activity.
So how much is available?
North Ayrshire Council along with the Health and Social Care Partnership and the UK Government’s Levelling Up Fund have provided a total of £198,377 of funding as part of their ongoing community empowerment ambition to give local people a direct say in how money is spent.
The funding will be shared between projects throughout all of the six North Ayrshire localities and these will broadly cover the themes of:
- improving local life and wellbeing (with a focus on the Cost-of-Living crisis);
- linking up and connecting people in local communities;
- promoting positive mental health and wellbeing
- tackling climate challenge
- promoting healthy and active communities
Successful projects will have up to £1,000 allocated per project (Locality, Youth) and then up to £5,000 for UKSPF combined application projects that get the most votes.
It’s now up to the people of North Ayrshire to decide which of the shortlisted projects most deserve to receive the funding.
Councillor Alan Hill, Cabinet Member for Islands and Communities said: “In the last PB funding round, those who took the time to vote helped make the dreams come true for almost 128 community projects who had their share of a £109,777 Participatory Budgeting windfall.
“And this round, we are ready to hopefully receive more votes than ever before as we have a staggering 105 Youth PB and 133 – in Locality or UKSPF - applications from projects looking for their chance to secure their share.
“Our residents know better than anyone else which projects will be the most beneficial to them in their local communities, so it is only fair that they have the final say on how this money is spent.
“Participatory Budgeting really is an inspirational example of community empowerment in action, and it has already made such a massive difference to many local projects over the last few years.
“It has been fantastic to see so many local groups benefitting already, and we look forward to this year’s results and the positive outcomes that this funding will bring to an array of amazing projects across the area.”