Shipley Town Council launch new green grants scheme

Shipley Town Council is inviting members of the public to have a say in how it spends its budget for mitigating and adapting to climate change.

The town council is running a ‘participatory budgeting’ scheme where local people and organisations can apply for funding to run projects that address the outcomes of the Shipley Citizens’ Jury on Climate Change.

Shipley residents will be invited to a public meeting in January 2024 to vote on projects they think should be funded.

Cllr Darren Parkinson, Chair of the town council’s Climate Emergency and Environment Committee says “Shipley Town Council is committed to playing its part in tackling climate change by adopting a ‘think global, act local’ approach. We want our local community to be as involved as possible in making decisions about what we should be doing about the climate crisis. Allowing the local community to be involved in making decisions about where our climate action budget should be spent is an important way of achieving this.”

Cllr Paul McHugh goes on to say “The Shipley Citizens’ Jury on Climate Change that the town council ran in 2022, gave a voice to our community on the climate crisis and widened local democratic participation in the biggest issue of our time. The Jury came up with a list of recommendations about how to tackle the climate emergency. We now want to give the people of Shipley the power to vote on which community projects they would like to see receive funding.”

A launch meeting is being held on Saturday 18 November at Shipley Library from 10.00am to noon. At the meeting you will be able to find out more about participatory budgeting and how to apply for funding for your project through the scheme. Refreshments will be provided.