Greenspace participatory budgeting

Participatory Budgeting was introduced to encourage more community participation and to direct resources to communities where it is most needed allowing communities to have a say in how public money is spent.  

This helps to promote community engagement and empowerment and aligns with our responsibilities under the Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act.

Participatory budgeting 2022

We are interested in finding out what projects local communities think could help nature to recover and thrive as we intend to spend £50k on practical improvements across North Lanarkshire in 2022/23.

Project suggestions

Following the launch of our Greenspace participatory budgeting exercise we are pleased to report that we received 34 applications by the closing date.  

Thank you to everyone who took the time to submit an application with their ideas. 

Review stage

During July, each idea was reviewed and assessed by our team of experienced officers against the following criteria:

• Will the idea help nature recover? 

• Will it be carried out on council land? 

• Is it practically achievable?

Unfortunately, although some of the ideas were really interesting, they did not meet the selection criteria and will not be taken forward to the next stage.  

The ideas that met the criteria will now be put forward to all North Lanarkshire residents for a public vote. We have worked with the successful applicants to refine their ideas and are confident that we can develop their ideas into a deliverable project. 

Successful projects

Successful projects will be announced on 17 October 2022 and work will start on those projects following that. 

If you have any questions, please email greenspace@northlan.gov.uk

Previous success

Our North Lanarkshire Biodiversity Action Plan recognises that biodiversity across the whole of the area is under pressure and sometimes neglected leaving our species and their habitats under threat. 

Over the last few years, we have successfully delivered the following projects to assist nature recovery across the whole of North Lanarkshire including:

• Restoration of bog habitats. 

• Restoration of ponds within our local nature reserves.

• Tree planting (including the Strathclyde Children’s Wood and coming later this year planting projects in Palacerigg Country Park and Calderbank).

•  A wildflower pilot project (leading to the development of new wildflower projects in our country parks and town parks over the coming months).