PEOPLE across Scotland are to have a say in how £100 million of council funds will be used in their communities.
Council leaders have agreed that at least one per cent of local government budgets will be subject to "participatory budgeting" by the end of 2021 which allows communities to make decisions on how funding is spent in their localities.
Local Government Minister Kevin Stewart said: "This is a clear way of bringing democracy to local communities by giving people a direct voice in spending decisions."
Adding, "We want to see a Scotland in which everyone can play a full part in society and every community has different challenges and opportunities, which is why it is fantastic news at least one per cent of local authority budgets will be subject to community choices budgeting.
"Local authorities are to be congratulated on taking democracy closer to the people and we will continue to work with them, communities and all sectors across Scotland to make community choice budgeting a success."
The framework for the fund has been created by the Scottish Government and the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA).
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel