FAQs

If you have any questions about content, or council's consultation and engagement process, please email us: engage@aberdeenshire.gov.uk 

If you have a question regarding a specific project currently open for consultation, please contact the relevant project officer. Their contact details can be found in the Who’s Listening section for each projet.

We are asking people to register to help us keep the platform safe and reliable. If you are registered, you can also tell us if you want to be notified about future engagements. That way you will not miss anything important!  

When you register for Engage Aberdeenshire, we ask questions about you such as your year of birth, gender and postcode. These questions are optional, but this helps us understand who is engaging with us. Knowing a little more about who you are also helps us get a higher quality of data to go along with your feedback. The data will help us determine for example, if specific groups such as younger people or older people have differing views. This provides us with a richer and more valuable response to help council make decisions. The registration data also allows us to know who is typically engaging with us and whether we need to take steps to help give everyone an equal opportunity to get involved and have their voice heard. 

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Yes, we take your privacy very seriously.  We will never give your personal details to a third party or disclose your personal information without your consent. 

We will only use your email to contact you with updates and to invite you to participate in consultations.  We will not give your email address to anyone else or use it for any other purpose. 

For further information, refer to our privacy notice. 

We are asking people to register to help us keep the platform safe and reliable. If you are registered, you can also tell us if you want to be notified about future engagements. That way you will not miss anything important!  

When you register for Engage Aberdeenshire, we ask questions about you such as your year of birth, gender and postcode. These questions are optional, but this helps us understand who is engaging with us. Knowing a little more about who you are also helps us get a higher quality of data to go along with your feedback. The data will help us determine for example, if specific groups such as younger people or older people have differing views. This provides us with a richer and more valuable response to help council make decisions. The registration data also allows us to know who is typically engaging with us and whether we need to take steps to help give everyone an equal opportunity to get involved and have their voice heard. 

Yes, you can change your registration details by logging into your account on the Engage Aberdeenshire site. Once you're logged in you'll see your username above banner in the top right hand corner. Click on the drop down arrow, which brings up a menu, then click Profile and make any updates.

All moderation is carried out by Bang the Table and all moderation is independent of Council. The moderators do not edit or alter any comments and will only remove comments deemed to be significantly off topic, offensive or malicious, in which case they are removed from the site immediately. Please read our moderation guidelines for more information

We collate all comments, ideas and suggestions received from our engagement platform and from other face-to-face consultation to gain insight into community views and opinions, which we then use to inform the development of strategies, programs, and activities or other council decision-making processes. However, whilst all feedback provided during a consultation will be considered, this does not mean that every suggestion can be taken on board or adopted.

You can opt out of receiving notifications from Engage Aberdeenshire at any time by updating your profile. If you no longer wish to participate and be registered on the platform entirely, please email engage@aberdeenshire.gov.uk and we will deactivate your account and cancel your registration.

This funding is from LLA’s Capital Budget which means it can only be spent on built facilities and physical infrastructure. It can only deliver Sport and Leisure outcomes. It can only be used for projects in Stonehaven town. The funding is not restricted to those facilities owned by Aberdeenshire Council.

NB Leisure outcomes for this project are those defined as contributing to improving provision of sport infrastructure.  Ideas such as picnic areas, camping or motorhome sites, public toilets, BBQ on the beach would not be considered as are out of scope for this project.

The Goals for this project are:

• to understand community requirements for facilities and physical infrastructure 
• to support physical activity to make the best use of the available funds either as a single project or part of a phased programme 
• to seek high levels of community participation to create a long-term vision for the community and a greater sense of place around sport, leisure, health, and wellbeing

We will be asking for individual local views on sport and leisure requirements in August 2021. In addition to this, Aberdeenshire Council staff will work and engage with community groups to capture the broadest range of ideas. You can engage with these groups, participate in surveys and comment within the online forum

PB is an internationally recognised method for engaging communities and is a democratic process in which community members decide how to spend part of the public budget. It gives people a real say in how money is spent. Aberdeenshire Council has committed to the use of the PB process in delivering an element of local authority spend

To be successful, PB must be an open and inclusive process where everyone in the community feels they can participate and have their say, voting on the options arising from the process. The option receiving the most votes will be implemented. 

You will be able to vote online, but there will also be sessions where you can vote in-person if you prefer. We will be letting the whole community know when and how to vote

“Sport and Leisure facilities” a space where its substantive use is for sport and leisure. In the context of this funding, are spaces specifically designed and managed to enable sports and leisure activities to be delivered. This project will focus on the types of sport and leisure which involve physical activity with both physical and mental health outcomes.

The funding is from Live Life Aberdeenshire's Capital Budget which means it can only be spent on built facilities and physical infrastructure. It can only deliver Sport and Leisure outcomes. 

 Leisure outcomes for this project are those defined as contributing to improving the provision of sports infrastructure. 

Ideas such as picnic areas, camping or motorhome sites, public toilets, BBQ on the beach would not be considered for this project as they would be out of scope in terms where the money available can be used. However, they will be noted as an idea in the initial stages of information gathering.

The options arrived at using the PB process will be costed, and initial voting will be on those projects which can spend the allocated funding within the period required (by March 2023). However, this does not prevent community fundraising or the leveraging of funding for other options which are identified but which it is not possible to proceed with at this time. These options may also be included in future phases.

No – one of the most important parts of this process is to ensure the options put forward for the town are developed by the community, for the community. During the next few months, we will listen to the community and develop costed options which will then be voted on.

No, options may involve more than one facility.

Live Life Aberdeenshire is leading the project through a Reference group. The Reference group includes representatives from Stonehaven Community Sports Hub, Stonehaven and District Community council, Stonehaven Recreation Grounds, and other partners. This group will have input into the process and help to encourage participation from the wider community. 

This project is funded from the budget allocated to Live Life Aberdeenshire by Aberdeenshire Council. Live Life Aberdeenshire is the Sports and Cultural Service of Aberdeenshire Council. 

Look out for information distributed locally, tell your friends and family about the project, and encourage them to get involved. Share information on the process from our social media channels and get involved in the survey through Engagement HQ. 

We will be using an electronic voting system within this page, which ensures only one vote per person. Voters will be asked to provide some details which allow us to monitor the votes to ensure the results are  equitable, fair, and the community have confidence in the result

Following the conclusion of Voting Week, options shall be ranked in order of which receive the most votes.  The option with the most votes will receive PB funding; the option with the next most votes will thereafter receive PB funding (unless there are insufficient funds within the PB to cover the cost of that option); this process will continue until either the PB has been spent or there is an insufficient PB to cover the cost of any remaining options.

Please note that the cost of each option may not comprise the total cost for delivering that option, which may also be reliant upon other external funding; each option may also require to meet other legislative requirements - for example planning permission, premises licenses or compliance with other legislative regimes.  Where any option cannot be delivered for any reason, any unused PB shall be reallocated to a previously unsuccessful option (in accordance with how those remaining options were previously ranked and whether there is sufficient PB to cover the cost of those options) where possible.”