Bucks for Bressay
A Community Council PB Project based in Bressay to distribute £6,000, undertaken in March 2017.
The aims of the project were to:
- Build and maintain momentum in PB activity already being supported by PB Partners
- Increase the impact PB has to support community engagement
- Build on participatory democracy
- Help tackle inequality
Bressay Community Council worked in partnership with Shetland Islands Council to deliver this project. Priorities were identified as projects being open and inclusive membership and beneficial to the Bressay community.
Bressay Community Council invited applications from local groups through various means including writing to all Bressay community groups, delivering flyers and putting up posters. They also had an open meeting to give local groups the chance to come along and speak about their project ideas. Many groups took away application packs, and after the open night, it was clear that PB was starting to create a “buzz” in the isle.
The PB event took place on Sunday 26th March 2017 with over 90 people attending and 87 voting papers returned.
A total of 8 applications were received with all of them going forward to the public vote. Information on each project was produced to share with the community. As part of the PB event, Bressay Community Council decided that it would operate a “market place” format, encouraging each community group to put together a display to show off its project idea and be available to answer any questions from the voting public. At 5.30pm the public begin to arrive and very quickly there was a lively atmosphere in the hall as people visited each project “stall” and conversations took place. The event was quickly transformed from a public vote into a fun social event, with people of all ages taking part. Everyone was excited to see how the voting would go.
Voting opened early to enable those who could not stay to cast their vote. Votes were counted and results announced quickly after the close of voting with 6 of the 8 projects fully funded and one partially funded. Successful groups were then presented with their cheques.