 
Salford Participatory Budgeting Event
Method(s) Used
Name of person who posted the project:Ruth Jackson
Location of project:England
Date when the project started:2007
Date when the project ended/project ongoing:
Background to project:Salford City Council was one of the first councils in the UK to become interested in participatory budgeting, sending councillors and community activists to Brazil in 2000 to learn about PB. The group that went to Brazil developed a feasibility study with recommendations and a steering group was set up. Due to various internal processes, PB did not actually get off the ground until 2007/08 when this project took place. Due to the success of the project, Salford City Council is looking to build on it and is looking at devolved highways budgets of �200,000 for PB processes in 2008/09.Purpose of project:To involve the local community in proposing and prioritising projects for highway improvements.To involve a wider range and number of residents than would normally attend a community committee meeting. Project activities:�800,000 was devolved from mainstream highways budgtes to 8 Community Committee areas for Highway improvements. Claremont and Weaste Community Committee decided to allocate its �100,000 share using a PB process.Before the event: project proposals were gathered from the Community Action Plan and from ideas submitted from residents. Residents were invited to attend the PB event and efforts were made to target those who didn�t usually attend meetings. Project costing estimates were drawn up by Urban Vision. At the event: written information and photos of each of the 23 prioritised schemes were laid out on tables and a technical officer from the council was available to answer questions. Residents were given score cards to mark each scheme out of 10. The top 10 scoring schemes went through to a second round of scoring using the same process. Residents� final scoring allowed 4 schemes to be potentially funded, subject to project estimates being correct. Elected members affirmed the decisions of the community. The legal decision remained with the members. Project results:1. Around 50 people attended the event, which was a significant increase from the usual numbers attending community committees.2. A DVD was produced of the event. 3. New groups were brought into decision making. 4. Trust was increased between service provider ( the Highways department) and the community. 5. The Community had a greater input into deciding how a mainstream budget was spent. 6. The process demonstrated that PB can be used to decide on the allocation of part of mainstream budgets. 7. The success of the event has lead to the council deciding to continue with PB in 2008/09 with �200,000 - an increase of 100% on 2007/08. Contact details:The PB Unit has submitted this case study as we worked closely with Salford City Council on the project and our contact details are below. However, if you wish to contact Salford directly, we can provide you with their details on request.Ruth Jackson Tel. 0161 236 9321 |
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