Five community-led projects have been selected by the public to be funded in the Firhouse – Bohernabreean Electoral Area through South Dublin County Council’s landmark €300k Have Your Say participatory budgeting initiative. A results night was held in Firhouse Community Centre on 11th December and the projects will be worked on by the Council during 2020.
The five projects selected for funding are:
- A Health and Wellbeing Garden in Firhouse Community Centre
- An Intergenerational Outdoor Activity Space in Glenasmole
- A Nature Trail along the River Dodder
- Upgraded playground facilities in Ballycragh Park
- A Native Tree Trail in Woodlawn Park
Over 5,000 people voted in this year’s edition of ‘€300k Have Your Say’, making it the most successful to date in terms of voting.
‘€300k Have Your Say’ is a participatory budgeting initiative which has been run by South Dublin County Council since 2017. €300k Have Your Say allows residents to develop project ideas for their local area and then vote on shortlisted proposals in order to fund winning projects up to the value of €300,000. Twenty-three projects to date have been selected for funding in the Lucan Electoral Area in 2017 and Clondalkin Electoral Area in 2018. The Council will run the initiative in every local electoral area in the County with the next area due to be selected from a hat by the Mayor in 2020.
South Dublin County Council has previously won a Chambers Ireland Local Government Award in Citizen Engagement for the initiative and been shortlisted for a European Innovation in Politics award in the ‘Democracy’ category. South Dublin County Council was the first local authority in the country to run a participatory budgeting initiative in 2017.
Photo- Ben Ryan
