Welcome to Bristol's first e-Participatory Budgeting Pilot - I hope you like it.

The pilot has been set up by the Bristol Partnership as part of taking forward the 20:20 plan. The 10 year strategy aims to put Bristol into the top 20 cities in Europe by 2020. You can find out more about the Partnership on our website at  www.bristolpartnership.org

The Partnership is committed to increasing the opportunities for people who live in, work in or visit Bristol to get involved in how the city is run. We especially want young people to be more involved, as well as other groups who are less able to attend meetings in person.

This "dialogue" is a pilot project that has been set up on behalf of the Cabot, Clifton & Clifton East (CCC) Neighbourhood Partnership to see whether people are interested in submitting ideas, and voting for these ideas on how to spend some of the money that the NP has available. It builds on the ideas of participatory budgeting that has been run successfully elsewhere in the UK, but instead of gathering everyone in a school hall on a Saturday morning - we have decided to try using the web.

If it is successful, we will be offering the same facility to each of the other 13 Neighbourhood Partnerships in Bristol.

There are a few things worth pointing out about the pilot. It was decided that we ought to start from the position of trust - that is to say that we will assume people are not going to try to cheat untill we catch them at it. However, if it turns out we are being naive, we will build in some extra controls - such as only allowing residents to vote etc. However, this will add complexity and cost. In the meantime, we have the ability to monitor the site and will investigate any signals of improper activity.

Secondly, we decided to make the registration as simple as possible so as not to put people off. However, we are interested in what sort of age range contributors are, and also whether they live in or nearby the area, or are an ex-Bristolian now living in Newcastle - hence the postcode. We have left these optional to see whether people are happy to fill it in or not.

Lastly, there is the balancing act of who has the final say over what the money is spent on. Ultimately, the Accountable Body is Bristol City Council. It has a legal obligation to make sure that its funds are spent appropriately. However, the Elected Members (6 Councillors, 2 for each of the three wards in this Neighbourhood Partnership) who run the Neighbourhood Partnership are committed to giving the assurance that as long as the winning suggestions are legal - then they will stick by the decisions dictated by the votes.

Just to reiterate - this is a pilot project, so I'm sure we will learn a few lessons along the way. However, we are committed to using e-methods to increase people's feeling that they CAN influence REAL decisions about the way things are done in their city. So, I hope you will support the project and get stuck in!

Thanks, and good luck to all those who submit an idea.

Darren Hall

Bristol Partnership Manager