£1.5m for fund to help communities have more say on how money is spent

Communities from Arbroath to Ullapool will share £1.5 million to increase the numbers of people involved in making decisions about investment in their local areas.

A total of 33 organisations from across Scotland were successful in securing Community Choices Funding in 2017/18 to host events and find new ways to encourage participation in financial decision making.

The fund, which targets deprived communities, received 91 applications with 16 successful community organisations and 17 successful councils. A full list of successful applicants is provided below.

The projects include:

Local government and housing minister, Kevin Stewart, said: “What is so important about the Community Choices Fund is that it puts decisions about how we invest in communities into the hands of the people who live and work in them. Each of these projects is about making people more equal and improving their lives, for the communities themselves to lay out exactly how that should be done.

“Since 2014, £4.7m has been invested through the Community Choices Fund. Last year it helped support more than 1,300 local projects selected through a vote by members of the local community. This further £1.5m will now pave the way for even more people to get involved and make a real difference in their family, friends and neighbour’s lives.”