Participatory budgeting: how to decide what your council spends money on

Every year, most councils of any size open a process in which residents decide how part of the public money is spent. And every year it goes almost unnoticed.

It is probably the most direct way to influence your neighbourhood, and the least used.

What it actually is

The council sets aside an amount from its capital budget — money for works and facilities, not salaries or services — and opens a process for residents to propose and vote on specific projects.

That money funds very tangible things: a playground, a pavement upgrade, a cycle lane, refurbishing a community hall, shade in a school playground.

The amount varies enormously. In a small town it might be thirty thousand euros; in a large city, several million. As a reference, it usually sits between 1 % and 5 % of the capital budget.

Why your vote counts so much here

This is the figure that changes your perspective: turnout in these processes is usually very low, often between 1 % and 5 % of the electorate.

In practice: in a town of 40,000 people, perhaps a thousand vote. A project wins its funding with two or three hundred votes. If an organised group of residents backs a proposal, it wins.

Compare that with local elections, where your vote is one in twenty thousand. In participatory budgeting, your vote and your neighbours' genuinely decide.

How the process works

The names change from one town to another, but the sequence is almost always the same:

1. Submitting proposals. A window, usually two to four weeks, for anyone to propose a project. Normally through a web form or the registry.
2. Technical assessment. Council services review each proposal and discard those outside the council's remit, over budget or not feasible. Many people fall here, almost always through not knowing these limits.
3. Voting. Proposals passing the filter go to a vote, usually online and at physical points.
4. Delivery. The most voted projects are built into the following year's budget.

The calendar usually runs between spring and autumn. It is worth knowing when, because the windows are short and nobody announces them loudly: they are published on the council website and stay there.

How to make a proposal that wins

Across many processes, successful proposals share five traits:

• It falls within the council's remit. Mistake number one is proposing something that depends on regional or central government: a health centre, a school, a motorway. Discarded immediately.
• It fits the budget. If the cap per project is 50,000 euros, do not propose something costing 300,000. Check the cap before writing.
• It is specific and located. "Improve the parks" cannot be assessed. "Install shade and two benches in the park on X street" can.
• It benefits many people. Proposals benefiting only one street usually lose to those with wider reach.
• Someone champions it. Winning takes votes, and votes take someone explaining the proposal to their neighbours. Winners almost always have an association or organised group behind them.

Limits worth knowing

To avoid disappointment:

• Capital spending only. It cannot fund staff or recurring services. You can build a community hall, not pay whoever runs it.
• Timelines stretch. A project voted in 2026 being delivered in 2028 is normal. It does not mean it was forgotten, though chasing it up helps.
• Not everything gets built. Sometimes a winning project proves unfeasible at the technical stage. That should be explained publicly; it is not always.
• The council designs the process. It decides how much money, what can be proposed and how voting works. Participation is real, but within a framework residents did not choose.

Even so, it remains the most direct route available to decide something concrete about your surroundings. All it takes is finding out in time that the window is open, which is exactly where most people fail. If you want those notices to reach you without hunting for them, that is the idea behind Snurkel.