The people of Unterschleißheim have decided: This year, an adventure playground will be created with the citizens’ budget. Fruit trees are planted, from which everyone can see that everyone can harvest. And ground trampolines will be installed in one or two playgrounds to give the kids even more fun there. The so-called citizen’s budget is a budget title of 200,000 euros, on the use of which all interested parties from the city can decide directly in a process of direct democracy. It started with a kind of collection of ideas via the online portal Consul of the city administration. Projects that could be implemented were then determined and the next survey followed. In the end, the three projects prevailed, the implementation of which the main committee of the city council has now formally sealed.
On this occasion, there was a discussion in which it was checked whether citizen participation in this budget can now be described as successful. Manfred Riederle (FDP) had his doubts. He complained that, from his point of view, very few people took part in the final vote. 36 people voted for the “fruit for everyone”, 27 for the adventure playground and 23 for the trampolines. That’s rather poor. “It was obviously not sufficiently successful in reaching the citizens in this way,” said Riederle. But Steven Ahlrep, who oversees the citizens’ budget at City Hall, disagreed.
In his opinion, the entire process must be considered. And the numbers look very different. After all, 4,400 people were at Consul to find out about the current Citizens’ Budget project or to get involved directly. That’s a “large part of the population”. You can’t reach that many people “with any event”. Just as many would have participated in the final vote as in previous years.
This time, for the first time, a citizens’ budget of 200,000 euros was made available, which is twice as much as in previous years. The process was straightened out for this. There is only every two years the opportunity for citizens to bring their heartfelt concerns to the city and implement them through a majority vote. The aim of this was to ensure that larger projects could also be tackled, it said in the new version of the public participation process. Where and how the three wishes will be realized is still an open question. One consideration is to create the adventure playground at the so-called Siemens playground. However, Thomas Breitenstein (SPD) called for a clear distinction to be made between what is being implemented using funds from the citizens’ budget and what is being implemented from the current budget. Because an upgrade of the playground is already planned.
However, it is still unclear whether this planned upgrade – independent of the adventure playground – will actually take place. Mayor Christoph Böck (SPD) referred to the tight finances. One is in the process of developing a concept for the Siemens playground. In the budget consultations, it is then decided what is feasible and what is not. The project is on the option list, like many others. The adventure playground is of course financed. The budget for this is available.