Public vote to decide on Norfolk council cash

EMMA KNIGHTS

22 February 2010

A common complaint made against local and national government is that too many decisions are taken by people with little knowledge of those people or communities affected by them. However a new scheme, being trialled in Norfolk, aims to put the public at the heart of such decisions by giving them a say on where pots of public sector funding should be spent. Emma Knights spoke to people at one of the events set up to do this.

If they ever decide to turn the popular television programme Dragon's Den into a stage show - it would probably resemble the scenes played out at Dereham's Memorial Hall this weekend.

Teams of people took to the stage to explain why their projects should receive a financial windfall.

But instead of facing the fire-breathing dragons, they addressed members of the public given the power to decide how to distribute £36,000 from the public purse.

Saturday's event, organised by the Norfolk Association of Local Councils (NALC), aimed to get people more involved with public spending using participatory budgeting, where local people decide how to allocate part of a public budget.

Norfolk is one of a number of counties where participatory budgeting schemes have been trialled and the government's rural watchdog, the Commission for Rural Communities, wants more authorities to adopt the process because it believes it brings communities together, helps people understand public budget-setting, and addresses local needs more effectively.

At Saturday's Your Parish, Your Decision event more than 80 people voted for which of the 21 town and parish councils taking part should receive some of the £36,000 grant given to NALC by Norfolk Ambition.

While voting was open to all, to stop tactical voting only five voters were allowed from each parish making a bid, and all voters had to give an individual score for every project depending on how worthy they thought it was.

Suzi Battell, a voter from Langley with Hardley, said: “I think it is quite inspired. Everybody can get involved. I would like to see this happening more, and also elsewhere in decision making. I can see a great potential in it.”

Elaine Pugh, 49, a voter from North Walsham, said: “It gets people more involved and gets communities talking to each other more, which is vital. It encourages communities to work together.”

Twelve-year-old twin sisters Kerry-Ann and Lorissa Hipperson, from Roughton, were among the youngest voters.

Lorissa said: “Sometimes adults do not know what children want so it is nice that we got to vote too.”

While most thought participatory budgeting was a good idea, some stressed that more of the public needed to get involved. At Saturday's event there were only about 12 “completely independent voters”, that is people who were not there to support a specific project.

North Walsham town clerk Margaret Foster, 62, said: “I think the public should be involved in what councils are trying to do. How involved they want to be is another matter.”

John Pennell, 65, from Bunwell. who was not there to support a specific project, said: “I think participatory budgeting is a very good idea but more people need to get involved.”

Tony Nash, chairman of NALC, was pleased with the turnout for the association's first participatory budgeting event, and especially with the mix of old and young people. The hope is that as participatory budgeting becomes more well known, more people from the wider public will want to take part in future events.

Mr Nash said: “A lot of people think parish councils are all male, pale and stale, but we are not. We are vibrant communities in our areas and we want more people to get involved,” he said, adding that if NALC could secure more funding it would run a similar event next year.

In March last year people living in Thorpe St Andrew, near Norwich, were asked to take part in participatory budgeting to decide how to spend £23,000 of public money to cut crime in their area.

And earlier this month sea scouts, girl guides and eco-warriors were among community groups in the Lakenham and Tuckswood areas of Norwich that received a share of £35,000 which local people were also given the power to hand out through participatory budgeting.