Empowered communities in Renfrewshire have chosen the winning projects they think will make the biggest difference to their local area – after they had put forward the ideas.
As part of its community empowerment campaign #YouDecide, Renfrewshire Council made £1.2million available for infrastructure projects and every idea on the shortlist was put forward by a local resident.
A total of £75,000 was available for each of the 16 areas, with a maximum of £50,000 per idea, and the projects with most votes in each area have been funded until all the money is allocated – with some projects topped up with council funding to ensure as many local ideas as possible could be brought to life.
A total of 50 projects have been successful and include new skateparks at Moss Road Park, Bridge of Weir and Kintyre Park, Linwood, an enclosed dog exercise area at East End Park in Paisley, and kickabout football goals in Spateston Park.
In addition, there will be contributions towards brand-new play equipment for play parks at Station Park, Langbank; Glebe Street, Renfrew; and South Candren Village Green and Jennyswell in Paisley
And also on the way is feature lighting for the Wallace Monument in Elderslie and an upgrade to the Clyde Walkway path in Erskine with additional seating created at the waterfront.
Local Houston resident Sam Love has been fundraising for a new play park in the village and the new Helicopter Park took a step forward with funding to repair steps and ensure accessible access chosen by the community through the vote.
Sam said: “The funding will help create something that’s going to be there for years to come and will be hugely advantageous for children, and for parents and grandparents too who need that outlet. We know all about the benefits of outdoor play and this is going to be perfect for the village.
“#YouDecide is fantastic. Take it away from our success and you look how many people attended the event and they all represent a community project that #YouDecide has helped which is amazing.
“We’re living in a time which is pretty gloomy and here’s a project that is there to be proactive, to make people’s lives better in Renfrewshire, and it’s done it.
“There’s people walking out this building with massive smiles on their faces. I turned to my wife when our idea was successful and she had a tear in her eye, it’s perfect.”
Councillor Michelle Campbell, Convener of Renfrewshire Council’s Infrastructure, Land and Environment Policy Board, attended the small event at the University of the West of Scotland to celebrate the winning projects and is delighted at the success of the first iteration of this campaign.
She said: “#YouDecide has been a fantastic way of engaging with our local communities and ensuring that we extract the local knowledge from residents of what needed an upgrade where they live.
“Some were passionate about roads improvements, and some wanted upgrades to their local green spaces, but every successful project will make a noticeable difference to our neighbourhoods.
“Over the course of the campaign, the team met hundreds of local people, carried out more than 50 roadshows in local communities, visited countless community groups and used all our communications channels to reach as many people as possible – and this will be the benchmark we strive towards when #YouDecide returns again in the future.
“I’m looking forward to seeing all fifty projects come to fruition and I’m determined to build on this success of the engagement we carried out.”
For more information on the campaign, visit www.renfrewshire.gov.uk/youdecide.