Participatory budgeting launches participation platform for municipal playgrounds
Discuss, evaluate and vote until 1 December - results will be incorporated into the playground concept for 2025
Following last year's first participatory budget on the school building programme with around 6,000 participants, the second round is now underway: from 5 November to 1 December, citizens are invited to discuss, evaluate and vote on the topic of public playgrounds.
The draft municipal budget for 2014 includes the same amount of funding for playgrounds as in previous years. However, it has become apparent that not all existing playgrounds can be maintained in a satisfactory condition. In order to make do with the available funds in future, the Parks Department plans to maintain fewer playgrounds than before, but to maintain them to a higher quality and attractiveness. To this end, a playground concept is being drawn up that describes the development of the municipal playgrounds. The results of the participation process will be incorporated into this concept.
The plans are also a proposal from the department's administrative and structural concept, which aims to balance the municipal budget by 2015. However, this proposal does not involve any financial cuts: The money that is freed up by giving up old playgrounds or playgrounds that are little used from the point of view of the administration is to be invested in the remaining facilities and thus improve their quality.
In the participation process, which presents all 111 municipal playgrounds - not the 300 or so other playgrounds belonging to housing companies in the city - in detail and with their catchment areas, it is not only questions about the current range of playgrounds that play a role. The opinion of citizens, parents and grandparents is also sought on the development proposal presented up to the year 2025. The result is an important building block for the development of the playground concept. It will also be submitted to the City Council of Chemnitz for information during consultations on the draft budget.
Participation is now primarily possible online at buergerhaushalt.chemnitz.de. Information will also be available in tomorrow's official gazette. Participation is also possible by post, fax 488 1599 or by dialling 115. The address of the City of Chemnitz is: Mayor's Office, "Bürgerhaushalt", 09106 Chemnitz.
The following prizes will be raffled off among all participants in the public participation programme in December:
- First prize: An experience tour of the fire station with Mayor Berthold Brehm
- 2nd prize: A CFC football with the players' autographs
- 3rd prize: Two free tickets for a NINERS basketball game
Following a public discussion in the spring, in which the playgrounds were a key and recurring topic, the steering group decided to implement the project. Representatives from the local community, the city council, Chemnitz University of Technology, Local Agenda 21 and the administration work together in the steering group to discuss the implementation and development of participatory budgeting in Chemnitz.
From mid-November, the values of the entire 2014 draft budget and the planned investment and maintenance measures for each city area will also be presented on the platform buergerhaushalt.chemnitz.de. At the same time, consultations will begin in the city council committees.