Young votes will help local projects get cash

Young people aged between eight and 25 are being encouraged to take part in an online vote to help decide which Arran organisations are to receive a share of a £50,000 participatory budgeting pot being handed out by North Ayrshire Council.

Voting opens today (Friday) at 9am and closes at midday on Friday February 9, with results being announced later that day on the council’s Twitter account.

The island organisations vying for votes are: the Arran Duke of Edinburgh group, Arran High School mountain bike club, Arran junior triathlon club, Arran kayak club, North Ayrshire’s got talent group, Arran Theatre and Arts Trust, and the Arran Youth Foundations cooking group and LGBT group.

The exercise forms part of the council’s plans to celebrate the Year of Young People 2018 by giving young people the power to decide on how thousands of pounds will be spent on activities and events that celebrate one of the YoYP’s six key themes of: culture, education, enterprise and regeneration, equality and discrimination, health and wellbeing and participation.

Multiple

The available funding will be split between multiple projects across the six localities, including Arran, based on the number of votes cast by young people themselves.

All young people aged eight to 25 in North Ayrshire are eligible to vote using the single transferable vote method. Access to the online voting platform will be granted using their Young Scot National Entitlement Card – or they can obtain a temporary number to vote if they don’t have a card by emailing: youthpb@north-ayrshire.gov.uk

North Ayrshire’s youth champion, councillor Shaun Macaulay, said: ‘This is a fantastic opportunity for our young people to shape the delivery of the Year of Young People programme here in North Ayrshire.’

More information on each project in the running for a share of the funding along with details on how to vote, is available on the Young Scot website: https://young.scot/napb