Agenda item

The Area Board held a Participatory Budgeting session to consider applications for funding submitted by young people from the Trowbridge Community Area.

The Area Board had been allocated a specific youth budget of £9,297 to award to successful applicants for various youth projects and initiatives.

Participatory Budgeting provided the opportunity for everyone present at the meeting to have a vote on which applications they felt should be awarded funding. Each application would have to receive a minimum of 50% of the votes in favour, in order to be awarded the funding requested.

In order to proceed with the Participatory Budgeting, the Area Board agreed the following:

Decision

      i.        The Area Board agreed that the decisions relating to the Participatory Budgeting should be taken by the community in accordance with the process and conditions outlined in the report.  Those projects that received a minimum of 50% of the vote from the pubic attending the meeting would  be funded.

    ii.        The Area Board agreed that an additional sum of £250 should be awarded to the most popular of the projects in accordance with the process and conditions outlined in the report.  This would be the most popular project as voted by the public attending the meeting and would be used to enhance the project that has been applied for.

The following applications for funding were considered under the Participatory Budgeting processes and conditions.  Each applicant made a short presentation and answered questions relating to their project.

a)    Longfield Youth Group - £1,000 requested to purchase a range of console games and board games.

Decision

The votes received for Longfield Youth Group were 81% in favour of the grant and 19% against.  The Group was therefore awarded £1,000.

b)    West Ashton School Council - £550 requested to pay for the Crafty Potter to work with groups of children to design and decorate an egg cup each.

Decision

The votes received for West Ashton School Council were 85% in favour of the grant and 15% against.  The School was therefore awarded £550.

c)    Studley Green Youth Volunteering Group - £820 requested to take part in a street urban dance project and tea sessions for community volunteering.

Decision

The votes received for Studley Green Youth Volunteering Group were 80% in favour of the grant and 20% against.  The Group was therefore awarded £820.

d)    Bridging Project - £500 requested to run an arts and crafts cookery project.

Decision

The votes received for the Bridging Project were 98% in favour of the grant and 2% against.  The Project was therefore awarded £500.

e)    Studley Green - £950 requested for babysitting course and sports activities and equipment.

Decision

The votes received for Studley Green were 65% in favour of the grant and 35% against.  The project was therefore awarded £950.

f)     Paxcroft Mead Youth Forum - £1,000 requested to purchase 2 benches for the Paxcroft Country Park.

Decision

The votes received for the Paxcroft Mead Youth Forum were 68% in favour of the grant and 32% against.  The Forum was therefore awarded £1,000.

g)    St Michael’s Pre-School - £454.33 requested to purchase a play puppet theatre and to pay for a ‘Punch & Judy’ show/workshop to enjoy as part of a spring fete.

Decision

The votes received for St Michael’s Pre-School were 80% in favour of the grant and 20% against.  The School was therefore awarded £454.33.

h)   Urban Dance - £1,000 requested to buy equipment and PA system for a music, art and dance studio.

Decision

The votes received for Urban Dance were 74% in favour of the grant and 26% against.  The group was therefore awarded £1,000.

i)     £250 bonus.

Decision

The Bridging Project was voted the most popular project overall, and was therefore awarded a bonus of £250 to spend on their project.

j)      Remaining Funds

After allocating the grants as detailed above the Area Board considered how to allocate the remaining youth funding of £2,754.67.

Decision

            The Area Board agreed to ring-fence the remaining funds from the specific youth budget to enable Clarendon College to put forward a proposal to the 15 March Area Board meeting for activities for the Olympic Torch event at the school.