Case Studies
The Village Spend, Coedpoeth, North Wales
Together Creating Communities, a broad based community organisation, together with Help the Aged and the Community Council in Coedpoeth, used precept funds in a PB process.
Keighley Decision Day, Bradford
Bradford Local Strategic Partnership (Bradford Vision), decided to distribute the 2006/07 round of Neighbourhood Renewal Funding (NRF) in Keighley using a process of Participatory Budgeting.
Harrow Open Budget
The Harrow Open Budget initiative was initiated by key officials in the London Borough of Harrow to open up the process of developing the 2006/7 Council budget.
East Salford Highways Participatory Budgeting Case Study
IIn February 2008 Salford City Council held its second participatory budgeting event open to the public.
In Your Hands, Morecambe
Poulton Neigbhourhood Management arranged an event with Poulton community in February 2008 to distribute £20,000 on cleaner and greener projects using PB. The event was a great success, with over 100 people attending, 92% of which said they would take part again. 26 groups applied and 13 were funded through the process.
The People's Fund, East End & Hendon, Sunderland
The People's Fund was one of the original 5 pilots that the then Office of the Deputy Prime Minister funded to trial PB. They used a small community chest approach, with two events using PB to allocate £15,000 and £35,000 respectively.
Claremont & Weaste devolved highways budget case study
In 2006, Salford City Council made a decision to devolve decision making for the allocation of £100,000 of highways funding (Block 3 Transport capital – ‘Other Minor Works’) to each of the eight community committees in the city.
Voice Your Choice, Manton, Nottinghamshire
Just under 2 years ago Manton Community Alliance was chosen as a pilot area for a participatory budgeting pilot, the aim was to allocate a budget for priorities in the area that have been set by the community.
The Children's Fund, Newcastle
After months of preparation, 139 young people attended a participatory budgeting event in Newcastle in May 2008 to cast a 20% vote in the procurement of services for the city’s £2.25m Children’s Fund.
Your Community, Your Health, Your Voice
Participatory budgeting project in Thornhill, Southampton. This case study concerns the Participatory Budgeting pilot, ‘Your Health, Your Community, Your Vote’, which took place in Thornhill, Southampton in June 2008.
Participatory budgeting in Wigan
This case study reports on how Wigan Encompass used Participatory Budgeting principles to distribute £20,000 to members of the network. The Community Networks in Wigan, including Encompass, were eligible to bid for funds from the £20,000 allocation made by the LSP to support the Networks in an interim period until next April 2009.
Everyone Counts, Walsall
The Everyone Counts project involved working with children between the ages of 6-11 years old through the school council’s.
U-Choose For Cornwall
Three participatory budgeting events involving small grants were carried out in Cornwall under the banner of ‘U-Choose for Cornwall’. The events were held in the following locations: • Pengegon, Parc an Tansys and Gwelmor • Redruth North • Treneere
“Keeping Saffron In Your Hands”, Leicester
Saffron has received Neighbourhood Element funding since 2006/07 and has allocated its project funding through the Neighbourhood Management Board, consisting of local residents, ward councillors and organisational theme representatives. The Board members have had an interest in participatory budgeting (PB) processes since being briefed by the Neighbourhood Manager and having a specific session delivered about PB as part of a training programme. The Board decided to allocate £40,000 of its funding through a PB process.
The St. Ann’s Funding Team Awards for Young People 2009 – ‘The SAFTA’s’ in Stockon on Tees
The St. Ann’s Funding Team Awards for Young People 2009 (The SAFTA’s) a participatory budgeting event was held on the 19th March 2009.
You Decide!, Tower Hamlets (London)
The Tower Hamlets ‘You Decide!’ project began in January 2009. In the first four months we ran 8 events across which 815 residents spent almost £2.4 million. The money was from the central council budget and was spent on additional mainstream council services.
Your Voice Your Choice, Leicestershire
Leicestershire Together has allocated £20,000 to each of its 27 Community Forums (a total of £540,000), for a Participatory Budgeting process. Spending is to be completed by March 2011.
It's UP2U in Tameside
Greater Manchester Police were awarded funds from the Home Office to implement two pilots in the Greater Manchester area. They chose Tameside and Stockport divisions as their pilot areas. Tameside police decided to use their funds in the St. Peters ward. St. Peters is both an area of high deprivation and very multicultural with a large Asian community.
Acorns Your Voice, Your Choice Ballot
Your Voice, Your Choice ballot project was one of the Home Office community safety PB pilots which was given £20,000 of Home Office funding for PB. The time constraints for delivery were such that service providers were asked to come up with projects that met the community safety criteria. Ten were short listed by the steering group to go on the ballot.
Voice Your Choice in Eastfield, Scarborough
Residents of Eastfield voted on how £32,000 should be spent on projects addressing crime and community safety issues. As well as local people voting for projects at the ‘Decision Day’ in June 2009, residents played a key role in the design and delivery of the process.
Section 106 funding in East Devon
One of the Council’s priorities is ‘Children and Young People’ and inviting them to help design and vote on play and recreation provided an excellent opportunity for the Council to engage with children and young people.
Cae Ddol Park PB in Ruthin
In 2009, the council was forced to demolish the paddling pool in Cae Ddol park, resulting in passionate objections from many residents. The council decided to meet with residents and offer them £25,000 to decide how to spend this money in the park.
Rural Cornwall, China Clay Community Network
The China Clay Community Network was approached in September 2009 and asked whether it would be interested in running one of the Participatory Budgeting pilot small grants schemes. This was discussed with the Cornwall Councillors and it was agreed that we would focus this event on the rural villages of Whitemoor, Nanpean and Foxhole. The reasons for choosing these villages was that they were all in one parish and they were all relatively close together (within a three mile radius of the central village of Nanpean). They were also isolated and have been historically difficult to engage with.
