Exploring Local Authority Activity towards Mainstream Participatory Budgeting

In this series Katey Tabner, Social Inclusion Officer for PB at COSLA provides an overview of mainstream PB activity across Scottish local authorities.

COSLA currently host the National PB Officers working group, working closely with local authorities across Scotland in their journey towards meeting the 1% Framework Agreement. 

North Ayrshire Council 

Since 2017 council staff across North Ayrshire have been working with community members to redesign the grounds maintenance service delivered by the local authority. 

A central focus of North Ayrshire Council’s PB activity was to create opportunities for communities to influence how part of the ground maintenance budget is used. This supports a key driver behind Mainstream PB - to deliver services more efficiently. This will be possible as service delivery will be based upon understanding the needs and priorities of residents. North Ayrshire Council’s commitment to supporting local residents engage in decision making is outlined in the council’s Fair for All Strategy.

With support from COSLA, North Ayrshire Council set up an online platform for community members to engage in local decision making, including voting on local PB activity. Using digital voting, alongside local community events, the council were able to engage with 1850 participants during the ground’s maintenance PB process.

Designing the process

In 2017 North Ayrshire Council committed to allocate £750,000 of their ground’s maintenance budget to local PB decision making across 6 locality areas. The council’s mainstream PB approach was initially piloted in one locality area (2017-18), and then rolled out across the remaining 5 locality areas between 2018-19. 

A strategic working group was set up within the council to design the PB process. This involved staff from the Connected Communities Team working closely with Streetscene (Grounds Maintenance Service), Economy and Communities team and Communications services. 

Prior to engagement with local communities a data gathering, and resource modelling exercise was undertaken by the Streetscene service to highlight what activities were already being delivered by the council. Headline data for the pilot area indicated that 1,160,754 square metres of grass, 9, 525 square metres of bedding plants, and 34,900 summer bedding plants were currently being maintained. By highlighting the services already being delivered, awareness was raised within the local community about the scope of current services and council resources available for grounds maintenance.

Deliberation

Pam Crosthwaite of North Ayrshire Council with the winner of the 3 Towns Best Gardening Competition

To inform their PB process, North Ayrshire Council asked local communities to take part in an idea’s generation phase. This involved the council hosting drop-in meetings, held across each locality area, to explain what PB involved and what was ‘in scope’ during the decision making process. 

The ideas generation phase saw local communities working alongside council staff to understand possible project ideas in each locality. In each area maps were used to outline the land owned by the council. This helped communities identify where they would like to see interventions happen and work around any practical challenges in partnership with council staff.  Following these discussions, community members were asked to propose project ideas which were put forward for voting. 

Local events were promoted through a successful communications campaign using social media, North Ayrshire Council’s website, community planning partnership websites and local press articles.

Decision Making 

Following the idea generation phase, community members voted on their preferred ideas. Voting was possible via illustrated ballot cards at local venues or using the online platform. 

The three most popular community priorities in each locality area are now being implemented by North Ayrshire Council.

To ensure participation was inclusive North Ayrshire council chose to host events in accessible venues and hosted events in the morning, afternoon and evening. Council staff also worked closely with local voluntary sector partners and community groups, visiting projects with voting cards and explaining how community members could participate.

Outcomes

Through using PB to engage the local community in decision making, Streetscene the council’s grounds maintenance service have had positive feedback from local residents on the inclusivity of the approach and the visible changes within the local landscape. As a result of the grounds maintenance PB programme the council have planted fruit trees, local groups have adopted planters, a local gardening competition has been introduced and poppies were planted in 2019 to commemorate the WWI centenary. 

Trust between council staff and the local community has been enhanced, with many positive relationships between community member and council staff developed through the idea’s generation phase. Local communities have had a direct say in deciding how £750,000 of local authority budget has been spent. The success of the Council’s PB approach will be monitored by the Council’s People’s Panel which will be utilised to measure current and future satisfaction with open spaces. 

Through listening to the local community, North Ayrshire Council have also been able to incorporate community ideas into strategic plans. As a result of conversations that happened during the grounds maintenance PB the council is now planting more wild flower meadows, fruit trees and native species to improve the natural environment as part of its approach to sustainability and enhancing the natural environment.