Mayor urges town to register for Frome ‘Events Event’

Frome Mayor Toby Eliot has been telling Frome FM why the Frome Town Council has taken part of its Event and Outside Services budget and letting local people decide how it is spent. 

Talking to Rupert Kirkham he said, “Local people will have the final decision on which events will be funded. People will be asked to make real, and difficult, choices about where the money gets spent.”

So what is it all about? “On Saturday 11th March Frome Town Council is inviting a People’s Panel to Frome Town Football Club to listen to presentations from local organisations who would like FTC funding to help them put on an event in Frome,” explains the Mayor.

“There have been 16 applications and the events are likely to range in size and locations across the town and throughout the year. The criteria for the organisations applying are that their event does not make a profit and that it benefits local people.  The council is calling this ‘Participatory Budgeting’.

“This simply means that the panel will rate the events and those events rated most highly will be funded until the £30,000 budget is spent. This replaces the previous grants system where the councillors, using a similar system, decided where the money should go.”

When asked what it means for the town the Mayor replied: “PB is a way for the town council to provide real power to people in the community.

“It’s my hope that people who don’t usually come to town council meetings will take the opportunity to get involved and help make these decisions. I hope that we can provide more opportunities to get the people of Frome making decisions through PB in the future.

“The PB Funding for events voting is open to everyone aged 10 and upwards because everyone in our town should have a stake in these events. Local people will have the final decision on which events will be funded.”

FTC will randomly select the voting panel through a registration process.  The residents who are chosen will get the chance to have their say in how local money is spent and know that they have had a real impact on what happens in Frome over the next year.

Toby Eliot added that “A core value of PB is that participants will make the final decision and the benefit to local people will be that they get the event that they choose”

To hear more about the Events Event go to Frome Fm and Listen again to 14th Feb All About Frome.

To be involved residents need to register before 5pm Wednesday 22nd  Feb and must be aged 10 years or over.  Those who are selected will need to be free on the 11th March  from 9.30 am – 3 pm.  Lunch will be provided.

To register go to the link below https://www. surveymonkey.co.uk/r/7V8 G7TM or call 01373 465757.  Alternatively from the 20th Feb residents can call into the new Frome Town Hall in person.