FROME Town Council will next week let people vote on how to spend the council’s £30,000 events budget in a unique project to ‘let the people decide’.
In a radical departure from the way councils across the country spend public money, Frome will be asking taxpayers how they want to allocate the £30,000 events budget for 2017/18. More than 100 people in Frome signed up to form a panel that will decide which events are to be funded in the town in the year ahead.
The panel will meet on Saturday 11th March at Frome Football Club, listen to the proposals from 17 organisations who want to stage an event, and vote on the events they, the panel members, want to see.
Whilst the town council is organising this initiative, it will not have any influence over which events go forward.
Councillor Peter Macfadyen, who chaired the preparatory meeting last week said, “We are moving towards a more participatory democracy in Frome, which means that locally elected councillors encourage and enable other local people to decide what the council spends its money on.
“We make no apology to those who believe that councillors are elected to make decisions and they don’t need to work with the rest of the community to do so. Having over 100 people voluntarily wanting to influence how their council tax is spent shows that we are moving in the right direction.”
For more information contact Kate Hellard on 01373 465757 or hellardk@frometowncouncil.gov.uk
