Participatory Budgeting for Local Councils

Participatory Budgeting (PB) is a process which allows members of a community to participate in making spending decisions about local things that affect them. PB originated in Brazil in the late 1980s and was introduced to give communities confidence in democratic processes.

In other words, giving people in your community the opportunity to express their views as to where their money should be spent and giving your community what they want in the process.

Parish Councils, as local authorities, generally have a much closer relationship with their communities than larger principal authorities and should be an ideal basis for PB testing.

Public engagement is very important to a healthy political system. The more engaged a community is in how it is governed, the more it is likely to get out of those who govern it.

In Britain a PB Unit was established by Church Action on Poverty in 2001, partly funded by Central Government. Currently, the Coalition Government’s promotion of the “Big Society” is leading them to take an interest in many aspects of local activism, local self help and community engagement hence the strong governmental interest in PB continues.

Participatory budgeting is already happening with over 100 local authorities already involved in the process. Parish councils also use this process though on a smaller scale.

Both Greater Willington and Tow Law Town Councils were recently involved in pilot PB activities. Please find below an extract from Greater Willington Town Council’s recent newsletter. This process was assisted by Durham County Council’s Three Towns Area Action Partnership staff.

Greater Willington Town Council

The council put together a grant application to raise ten thousand pounds to be distributed to popular good causes in our community. Participatory budgeting is a new way of distributing funds. Whilst the applications for funding are assessed by the Town Council to ensure probity the decision as to who is awarded funding was decided not by the council but by members of the community who attend the participatory voting session. The event was held at the Methodist Church Hall, Lydia Street on the 22nd March 2011.

Councillor Sewell said ‘This is the first time this has been attempted in our area and those who benefitted felt it had been worthwhile with over 90% of people present and voting saying they would take part in the exercise again. It is becoming an established way of engaging communities and has a growing track record.”

Councillor Brian Myers M.B.E J.P., Chairman of Greater Willington Town Council added

“The new PB process is a tangible way of empowering local people in awarding real grant money to the most popular community causes. This ‘see the whites of their eyes approach’, where applicants are given the chance to tell neighbours about their ideas; produced for Willington one of the best ever attended council meetings.

The element of competition makes the event exciting and electronic voting keeps everyone involved to the end.

The resulting peer pressure means that groups must plan properly, gather support and then take part in the PB event. So as sponsors you have confidence that the funding is really needed and will be put to good use.

I would recommend that other Parish Council’s try it as an alternative way of decision making.”

So why should a parish council be interested in PB?

Parish councillors frequently complain about how difficult it is to get their community involved in the parish council’s business. Major planning proposals, wind farms, waste incinerators and such like are usually pretty effective in filling parish meetings with members of the public anxious to know how they might be affected, but otherwise, it is often said, no-one is interested.

PB has been shown to be a great way to get people involved and can:

Encourage people to bring forward ideas for their community.
Foster a greater understanding of local community issues.
Get people involved in their community and in voluntary activity.
Make sure that what gets done is what the community wants.
Helps the community understand how parish business affects them.
Helps people see how their council tax is being used.
Encourages new people to stand for parish council elections.

So why not give it a go.

You can either involve your community in PB during your budget setting process or by “setting aside” an element of your councils budget.

Judging by the comment received from Greater Willington Town Council PB actually works, it brings communities closer together, forges new links between community groups and raises the electorates awareness of the parish council. Even the smallest amount of money distributed in this manner should generate interest and bring results for your council, hopefully leading to more people becoming in the democratic process and standing for election at the next elections.

If people have a chance to have a say on where their money is being spent the more likely they will wish to get involved with other parish council matters. Such events are an ideal opportunity to sell your council to your electorate.

Rural Action Yorkshire website provides more detail and examples of other councils using PB in Yorkshire.

Please take this oportunity to find out more about Participatory Budgeting and get your community involved. If you need any further explanation, advice or assistance please get in touch with me on cdalc@durham.gov.uk or telephone 03000 269921.