Locality PB Fund 2024/25 - Funding Awards
Perth and Kinross Council · 11 June 2025
Back to Housing and Social Wellbeing Committee — 11 June 2025 and its agenda
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Our vision is a Perth and Kinross where everyone can live life well, free from poverty and inequality ___________________________________________________________________ Committee or Board: Housing & Social Wellbeing Committee Date of Meeting: 11 June 2025 Report Title: Locality PB Fund 2024/25 – Funding Awards Report Number: 25/159 Report Author: Jacob Dudgeon Organisational Lead: Elaine Ritchie, Strategic Lead – Housing & Communities/Greg Boland, Strategic Lead – Strategic Planning, People & Performance ___________________________________________________________________ 1. Purpose 1.1 This report informs Committee of the funding commitments made through Participatory Budgeting in the 2024/25 Locality PB Fund across four targeted localities based on deprivation data. £101,008 was awarded to 28 projects which will help tackle poverty and alleviate the cost of living. 1.2 Sections 1. Purpose 2. Recommendation(s) 3. Background 4. Summary of Funding Awarded 5. Projects Funded in Each Locality 6. Project Evaluation 5. Impact Value Assessment 6. Appendices 2. Recommendation(s) It is recommended that the Committee: 2.1 notes the funding awarded through participatory budgeting in the Locality PB Fund for 2024/25 and recommendations for future community grant processes. 2.2 agrees that this report will compliment Report Fairer Communities for All 25/160 detailing future community grant programmes for 2025/26 at this meeting.
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3. Background 3.1 In June 2024, the Council approved £100,000 for a participatory budgeting (PB) exercise in 2024/25. As agreed in Report 24/194, the monies would be used in four targeted localities based on data analysis from ACORN and the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD). These local localities were identified as Central & North Perth; Rattray; South Crieff and Coupar Angus, Meigle & Alyth. Allocations were divided across the localities based on income-deprived population ratio from SIMD data. 3.2 Following a successful online PB exercise in 2023/24, officers returned to the Consul platform to accept proposals and allow online voting from local residents. Offline paper voting was planned into the process at an early stage, which allowed this to be fully implemented into the Consul system and for CLD staff to arrange events and voting stations. 3.3 Proposals were accepted from 2nd December 2024, with CLD colleagues offering workshops during the submission window. By the 7th February, 54 proposals had been submitted across all four localities. One proposal was screened out due to being incomplete. The number of proposals received across all localities and those progressed to the voting stage is detailed below. Locality Funding Available Proposals Received Funding Requested Proposals Progressed Funding Requested Central and North Perth £47,837.22 18 £153,339 18 £153,339 Coupar Angus, Meigle & Alyth £16,690.60 10 £34,412 10 £34,412 Rattray £16,625.41 9 £32,469 9 £32,469 South Crieff £18,846.76 17 £50,809 16 £49,609 TOTALS £100,000.00 54 £271,029.00 53 £269,829.00 4. Summary of Funding Awarded 4.1 Public voting open on 17th February. Across the three weeks, 13,310 votes were cast in total, with 2069 made online and 11,241 made in-person at events or long -term locations with 2518 voters participating (940 online and 1578 in-person). A breakdown of these numbers in each locality is detailed below. Locality Online Participants Offline Participants Total Participants Online Votes Offline Votes Total Votes Central and North Perth 508 178 686 990 667 1657 Coupar Angus, Meigle & Alyth 103 508 611 272 3895 4167 Rattray 116 171 287 371 1234 1605 South Crieff 213 721 934 436 5445 5881 TOTALS 940 1578 2518 2069 11241 13310
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4.2 Out of 53 projects that were put forward to the voting stage, 28 projects received a total of £101,008.39 across the four localities. This is detailed further in the table below. Locality No. of Projects No. of Funded Projects Total Awarded Central and North Perth 18 6 £47,837.22 Coupar Angus, Meigle & Alyth 10 8 £18,846.76 Rattray 9 6 £17,699.00 South Crieff 16 8 £16,625.41 TOTALS 53 28 £101,008.39 5 Projects Funded in Each Locality 5.1 The following voting stage results were made in each locality area, with awards to be paid out to successful applicants by the end of March 2025. These are presented in alphabetical order of group. It should be noted that in the locality of Rattray, two projects were deemed eligible for partial funding through being tied runners up. With agreement from Finance officers, both projects were awarded their full award. Central and North Perth Project Group Amount Awarded The Community Fridge Project Letham4All £10,000.00 North Muirton Community Allotments North Muirton Community Group £7,000.00 Partizan Allstars Partizan Gymnasium £8,436.00 Making Rugby Accessible for Every Child in Perth and Kinross Perthshire Rugby £13,000.00 School Uniform Bank - Back to School & Nursery (Central and North Perth) Social Flock £9,001.22 The Decider Skills for Self Help Walled Garden £400.00 TOTAL £47,837.22
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Coupar Angus, Meigle & Alyth Project Group Amount Awarded Wonderland Event - Coupar Angus Adventure Circus £2,250.00 Get Into Tennis and Bowling - Under 12s Free Memberships for 2025-2026 Alyth Bowling & Tennis Club £544.76 AYP Revamp, Repair, Replace and Re- Wear! Alyth Youth Partnership SCIO £2,320.00 Family Food Creation and Learning Burrelton PSPC £1,100.00 CAYAG Adventure Seekers CAYAG £5,500.00 Coupar Angus PS Toast For All Coupar Angus PS Parent Council £2,132.00 DIY Lunch Food for Thought £2,500.00 Preventing Crisis Together in Coupar Angus , Meigle and Alyth Letham4All £2,500.00 TOTAL £18,846.76 Rattray Project Group Amount Awarded Free outdoor activities for kids Mantalk £3,080.00 Rattray Kids Party Time Rattray Hall Community Hub £1,450.00 Access to Adventure Rattray PS Parent Council £5,134.00 School Uniform Bank Social Flock £2,270.00 Wellmeadow ABC wants to make boxing accessible to all Wellmeadow ABC £5,000.00 For the love of moving Wisecraft £765.00 TOTAL £17,699.00 South Crieff Project Group Amount Awarded Crieff Community Garden Crieff Community Gardeners £3,100.00 Souper Good Crieff Connexions £528.41` Crieff Juniors Walking Football Crieff Walking Football £1,269.00 Cycle Crieff access to renovated and repaired low cost bikes and training Cycle Crieff £2,000.00 Kids Week in Crieff 2025 Kids Week in Crieff £2,455.00 Logos, Eat, Repeat Logos Youth Project £2,000.00 Strathearn Building Bridges Strathearn Building Bridges £2,343.00 Helping overweight men with poor mental health & reducing social isolation Strathearn United FC £2,930.00 TOTAL £16,625.41
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6. Project Evaluation 6.1 This year, events were held during the application stage to support applicants and during the voting stage to give projects the chance to pitch to local voters. Applicants fed back that they benefited from networking opportunities at voting events, however many suggested that opportunities in advance of the application stage would have supported the planning of more meaningful and collaborative projects based on local needs. This was initially featured in the project plan but did not come to fruition due to staff working on the Warm Welcome Fund in the run-up to the launch of the Locality PB Fund. 6.2 Publicity from applicant groups proved to be very effective in encouraging local residents and supporters to get involved in the voting stage. Officers believe that this could be utilised further by having events hosted by community groups to increase voter engagement locally. 6.3 Community groups have expressed their confusion and misunderstanding over several funding pots, such as fund names, processes, and criteria of funding of similar themes. It could be considered more practical to consolidate funding in fewer pots, which would also increase the chances of smaller and more rural groups receiving funding and minimising duplication by preventing groups from receiving multiple funding allocations for similar activities across various pots. 6.4 While both online and paper voting methods were viewed positively, increasing online participation would require using a simplified platform to reduce barriers for those with limited digital skills and to better engage younger voters. In any future PB exercise, It has been carefully considered that a voting method allowing participants to select up to three projects, in place of the current wallet- based ‘knapsack’ approach, should be used to improve clarity for voters and reduce the potential for invalid voting where the voting system has not been followed. 6.5 Further detail on the feedback and evaluation of the process can be found in the CLD Evaluative Report in Appendix 1. 7. Conclusion 7.1 The Locality PB Fund supports community-led projects which tackle poverty and the cost of living. This PB exercise has seen £101,008 committed to support 28 separate projects across four targeted localities in Perth & Kinross and engaged 2,518 local residents in the voting process. This report compliments the content of Report Fairer Communities for All 25/160 at the same committee covering the next rounds of Community Grants in 2025/26.
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8. Impact Value Assessment https://www.pkc.gov.uk/media/53913/Locality-PB-Fund-2024-25-Funding- Awards/pdf/Locality_PB_Fund_2024- 25___Funding_Awards.pdf?m=1743674683177 9. Appendices None.