'Two Towns - Big Ideas' Participatory Budgeting Fund

You can read about the results of this project here: Two Towns - Big Ideas | We Asked, You Said, We Will | Engage Aberdeenshire

Grant funding of between £500 to £5,000 has been allocated by Aberdeenshire Council to help support and develop the town centres of Banff and Macduff.

The ‘Two Towns – Big Ideas’ grant fund was identified in both the Banff and Macduff Development Partnership Action Plans as a priority project to help the towns to develop following the pandemic and cost of living crisis.

Face-to-face and online community engagement for this grant fund took place in Banff and Macduff this summer. To ensure a wide spectrum of views could be gathered to inform the process, it was decided to use a pop-up approach to the in-person element – taking the consultation to locations and events that already had footfall, rather than organising standalone events. This allowed us to capture both local community members as well as visitors to the area, along with different demographics.

Please click here to view the community engagement summary report to give you a flavour of what the communities of Banff and Macduff would like to see developed.

Following discussion with local business owners and reviewing the Banff and Macduff town centre health checks, Aberdeenshire Council teams agreed to explore participatory budgeting as a method of tackling this issue.

Participatory budgeting allows residents and the community to express their views and ideas on the town centre through local democracy, and be at the very heart of deciding how public money is spent locally.

Through the process of participatory budgeting, the aim is to address declining footfall and reignite activity in the town centres of Banff and Macduff and help inspire the two towns and communities to become directly involved in original and unique projects, including inspirational temporary use of vacant properties and to encourage community events in the area providing opportunities to bring people together.

The council’s application process is open to community groups, school groups, businesses, charitable organisations, community council and social enterprises.

Un-constituted groups or those without a bank account can also apply if their application is supported by an appropriately constituted group.

Further help and guidance

Please send all fund enquiries to twotownsbigideas@aberdeenshire.gov.uk