This year’s Tallinn participatory budget received 389 proposals
The call for proposals for the Tallinn's second participatory budget 2022 was a success - the people of Tallinn submitted a total of 389 ideas for promoting city life. The largest number of proposals was submitted for developing the urban environment.
According to Deputy Mayor Aivar Riisalu, the participatory budget is an effective tool for getting feedback from citizens on what kind of living environment they want and what to do to achieve it. "By means of the participatory budget, we get valuable ideas for developing the city space that are favourable for the residents, and involvement also helps to notice bottlenecks and find solutions to improve them," said Riisalu. "As in the previous year, proposals were received in several important areas. I am also pleased that the number of proposals in foreign languages has increased, which shows that regardless of the origin or the mother tongue, residents consider Tallinn their home and they want to contribute. I would like to thank all the people who looked around the city with an open mind and turned their observations into constructive suggestions.”
Most ideas were submitted to improve the urban environment - a total of 164 or 43 percent of all proposals. Children and young people, as well as culture and leisure, also received a lot of attention, with 55 and 51 ideas, respectively. 47 ideas were submitted in the field of sport, 38 in the field of security and 28 in other fields.
Among the districts, Kesklinn was again the most active with 83 proposals, which is even six more than last year. It was followed by Lasnamäe with 71, Põhja-Tallinn with 49, Haabersti with 42 and Kristiine with 41 proposals. More than 30 proposals were received from all districts. 225 ideas were submitted in Estonian, 134 in Russian and 30 in English. The vast majority, or 99 percent, of ideas were submitted digitally.
One million euros is initially planned for the implementation of Tallinn participatory budget in 2022. The exact amount will be approved by the Tallinn City Council upon adoption of the city budget at the end of the year. Three quarters of the total amount shall be divided equally between the districts and one quarter shall take into account the number of inhabitants of the district on 1 July of the current year.
In October-November, an expert committee formed by the Tallinn City Government will evaluate their feasibility and compliance with the established requirements. The chosen ideas will go to a referendum, where the ideas that receive the most votes will be implemented in 2022.
The public vote on the second participatory budget of Tallinn will take place from November 29 to December 12, 2021. People who are at least 14 years old and whose place of residence is Tallinn may participate in the voting of the participatory budget. Each participant can vote for two ideas of their choosing in the city district of their place of residence.
Last year, 420 ideas were submitted for the participatory budget. As a result of the referendum, ten proposals were selected, most of which have now been implemented. Some of the large but necessary projects will be implemented at the end of this year or next year.
Additional information can be found on the Tallinn participatory budget website.