Udecide

Rhuthun residents are invited to decide upon how up to £25,000 of public money can be spent on improving the play facilities in Cae Ddol. This is the so-called “participatory budgeting” exercise, where organisations and individuals in the town will put forward at least 10 ideas at a public meeting tomorrow at 7 p.m. at Ysgol Brynhyfryd; and the rest of us can vote on them. You’ve all had a leaflet (right) so let’s see a good turn out.

This follows the swift infilling of that health & safety nightmare, the Cae Ddol paddling pool. The pool’s disappearance caused something of a furore and its replacement, with something tangible under the “Udecide” voting system, will no doubt offer a safer and year-round facility. Though my leaflet doesn't translate Udecide, I guess this might best and informally be “dewisT”.

Suggestions range from model sailing boats to a (presumably dry) adventure ship to a youth shelter. One is “talking tubes & flowers” and we’re not sure whether the flowers do the talking as well as the tubes. Is that therefore “flowers & talking tubes” or “talking tubes & talking flowers”? I guess all will be made clear tomorrow evening.

To be deemed a success there will need to be as many people listening to the hustings & voting as possible. There should be an announcement of the winner on the night. If successful, can we expect the principle of participatory budgeting to extend to more important areas?

One worry is that, like everything else in public life, those who attend will be the usual regular attendees, if you see what I mean. Since young people may also vote, what’s to stop a mass action of young people voting through, for example, the youth & community shelter? Since the project is deliberately aimed at *play equipment* for *children*, we need plenty of children present, too, though 7 p.m. may be a little late for toddlers. To guard against any hijacking eventuality, the organisers need a really good turn out of ordinary folk—like you. Otherwise, it’s hardly “participatory”. As we said before, “the actual selected project matters less than..., partaking in the decision-making process”.

Whatever happens, at least we are unlikely to see anyone proposing a fishery.