Council learns its lessons from budget process

Committee note evaluation of ‘participatory’events

Lessons have been learned by Stirling Council over this year’s controversial participatory budgeting process, according to officials.

The authority faced criticism earlier this year when it first rolled out the Scottish Government- inspired initiative aimed at giving communities a say in how money is spent.

Some Stirling district community councils described the process as “inept and unfair” pointing out that those projects able to pack the ‘Your Place, Your Priorities’ meeting at Callander Primary School with the most supporters had benefited from the cash. Conservative party members described the 2018-19 process in Stirling as “fundamentally flawed.”

But Labour’s Chris Kane, who took part in the Stirling city participatory budget event, stressed that while there was much to learn ahead of the 2019-2020 budget process it had been “a remarkable and commendable attempt at doing things differently and collaboratively.”

A paper presented to councillors on Stirling Council’s community planning and regeneration committee last week itemised ‘key lessons learned’ to ‘inform’ how the council approaches ‘mainstreaming participatory budgeting.’

These included: organising it around smaller communities; clearer publicity and promotion; realistic timescales, and more participation support to make it more inclusive.

Report author Lynne McKinley said: ‘The application process should be developed to have clearer criteria for what can be funded, include a range of monetary awards, and have a more rigorous vetting and voting process to ensure the use of public money is open, transparent and appropriate.

‘Your Place, Your Priorities was a valuable introduction to participatory budgeting. The feedback not only generated ideas on improvements about the small grants model of participatory budgeting, but indicated a wider interest in how the council will approach mainstream participatory budgeting.’

Conservative member of the community planning and regeneration committee councillor Jeremy McDonald said this week: “The sessions held in Callander and Stirling were a valiant attempt by officers, but there was deserved criticisms regarding the ability to participate and, especially in regard to Callander, how the location of the voting could disadvantage some projects.

“If people do not have confidence in this project it will fail and confidence in local Government will be further undermined.”