MP welcomes announcement of 'Community Kitty' for Dartford - Dr Howard Stoate

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Thursday, 06 December 2007

MP welcomes announcement of 'Community Kitty' for Dartford

Dartford MP, Dr Howard Stoate, has welcomed the announcement this week by Communities Secretary, Hazel Blears MP, that Dartford Borough Council is set to become a pilot area for the Government’s new ‘participatory budgeting’ strategy.

First identified in the Government’s Local Government White Paper last year, ‘participatory budgeting’ - also referred to as a ‘community kitty’ - is designed to give local communities the ability to take control of budgets through community-led debates, neighbourhood votes and public meetings.

Six local authorities in England are already piloting the scheme, and a further twelve pilot authorities, including Dartford, have been announced this week.

Dartford Borough Council plans to allocate a small pot of around £30,000 of the council’s housing tenants’ budgets via participatory budgeting for housing environment issues, and is looking to develop this if possible. The council will be assisted in this by the Participatory Budgeting Unit, a third sector organisation part funded by the Government to provide advice and guidance on participatory budgeting.

Dr Stoate said; “Participatory budgeting is a way of giving local people a direct role in deciding how public money is spent in their area. Not only does it help to empower local communities and give local people more control over the future of their communities, it also helps them to develop stronger working relationships with local authorities and their elected representatives. I’m delighted that Dartford is to be one of the first authorities in the country to introduce a ‘community kitty’ and I’m sure it will prove extremely popular with local residents.”

Hazel Blears said; "Local people know their area better than anyone and want a direct say over how to tackle the issues that matter most to them from improving playgrounds, to dealing with litter, better standards of housing or taking action against anti-social behaviour. Too few people feel able to make a difference in their local area. Giving them more power over decisions on issues that affect them directly is a practical and modern way to get people involved with local democracy.”

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