LeithChooses

Participatory Budgeting for the Leith Neighbourhood Network

LeithChooses

Author Archives: Sally Millar

Leith Chooses Voting Day is here!

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Voting Day is here!

  • Do come to the Leith Community Centre between 11 and 3 pm to cast your votes.
  • It is fun, you will learn all about great community groups, charities and projects in Leith.
  • Free Refreshments
  • Free face-painting for kids, also a smoothie bike

Please note that the lift at the Newkirkgate shopping centre is unfortunately out of order and will not be available for the LeithChooses event. We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause. Volunteers in branded t-shirts will be on hand to support and redirect any voters who need step free access to either access the event in Leith Community Centre via the ramp in Lidl car park, or to vote in the Utilita hub on the ground floor of the Newkirkgate (volunteers, a hot drink and information about how to vote will be available at Utilita). If additional help is required on the day, you can also call the event team on 07718569916.

 

Who will YOU vote for?

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We are getting very excited as £eith Chooses Voting Day approaches – only one more week to go!
You can vote if you are 8 years or over, and you live in Leith, work in Leith, or volunteer or go to school or college in Leith. Please DO vote! You will be voting for funding for projects that can improve well-being within the Leith community.

The live Voting Day at the Leith Community Centre in the Kirkgate is Saturday 24 January 2026. It is always a really interesting and fun day, so please don’t miss it – be there, or be square!  The day opens at 11am for those who need some ‘quiet time’, and the main times are 12 – 3pm.

Sadly, not all of the great projects on offer will be able to win funding, as the Community Grants Fund ‘pot’ is limited to £44,707.16.  You really need to be sure to vote – and to tell all your friends and family to vote too!

If you can’t make it in person on Saturday 24rth, you can still vote online from Tuesday 27th January. Actually, you can do both! People who come along in person to support the community get an extra vote – one in-person, and one online at www.edinburgh.gov.uk/voteleithchooses. (This link is not live yet for voting though.)

It will help you to decide who to vote for if you take a wee moment here to read through the project outlines online before you come along.

 

 

 

Happy New Year from £eith Chooses!

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Hope everybody had a great Christmas and New Year!
January is £eith Chooses month – please remember to cast your vote for your favoured projects.

Voting Day at the Community Centre is Saturday 24 January 2026 (online voting opens on 27 January). It will help you to decide who to vote for if you take a wee moment to read through the project outlines online before you come along, as otherwise the day can sometimes get a bit overwhelming.

Sadly, not all of the great projects on offer will be able to win funding, as the Community Grants Fund ‘pot’ is limited to £44,707.16.  You really need to be sure to vote – and to tell all your friends and family to vote too! You can vote in person on Saturday 24rth or you can vote online from Tuesday 27th January. Or you can do both!

Have a look at all these great projects!

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Wow! This year’s Leith Chooses has attracted a record number of applicants! The ‘Gallery’ is now open and you can see details of all the proposed projects here, in advance of voting in January 2026.

Loads of great projects are being proposed but sadly, not all of them will be able to win funding, as the Community Grants Fund ‘pot’ is limited to £44,707.16.  You need to be sure to vote for your preferred projects – and tell all your friends and family to vote too!

Date for your diary- Voting Day at the Community Centre is Saturday 24 January 2026 (online voting opens on 27 January). It will help you to decide who to vote for if you take a wee moment to read through the project outlines online before you come along, as otherwise the day can sometimes get a bit overwhelming.

Applications are being processed

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What’s happening just now at £eith  Chooses?

The deadline for applications has passed, so no new applications can now be accepted.

All the applications submitted by the deadline are being processed, and you will be notified very soon if there is any further information required, and whether or not your application is eligible and has been accepted.

You have until 28th November to supply any final missing details that you have been asked for, to complete your application, in order to have it accepted.

Aftert that, the proposed project outline of all the eligible applications will be published here on this website, from 5th December, so that voters can have a good long time to read the previews and start to form ideas about who they will vote for, in January.

Any queries, please contact: leithchooses@edinburgh.gov.uk

Would you like help with your £eithChooses application?

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Are you a new applicant? Have you got an idea that needs refining? Would you like to discuss anything, before sending in your application?
Please feel free to come along to speak to us this Wednesday 17th September, at 5:30pm, in the Leith Community Centre (upstairs at the Kirkgate).
Or Saturday 4th October 2.30pm – 5pm, at Leith Community Centre at the Kirkgate, 10am-4pm
We would like to offer as much support as possible. It’s important to ask for help as early as possible in the process – please don’t leave it to the last minute!
If you would like some help with applying, please get in touch.
  • You can email leithchooses@edinburgh.gov.uk if you have questions, or to ask for someone to phone you or arrange a meeting (face to face or online), to discuss.
  • To talk to someone face to face, you can ‘drop in’ and visit a Steering Group meeting. These are held most Wednesdays at 3pm in the upstairs room at McDonald Road Library. We suggest you might email  (as above) to check a meeting is on that week, before coming along.
  • You can ‘drop in’ and visit an evening Steering Group meeting. These are held one Wednesday per month at 5:30pm in the Leith Community Centre, New Kirkgate. Upcoming dates for these are: 17th September; 15th October 2025
  • We’re also doing a pop-up support session on Saturday 4rth October, in the Utilita shop in the Kirkgate, 10am-4pm. Come in for a free coffee and a chat!

 

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Theme for 2025/26 is ‘Well-being in Leith’

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The Theme for 2025-2026 LeithChooses will be:

“Well-being in Leith”

Following feedback from previous years’ evaluations and our 2023 Community Conversation session, we asked members of the Leith community for their views on what the ‘Theme’ of next year’s LeithChooses should be, giving a choice of four possible options and also inviting them to put forward any other ideas. This was circulated in  May/June via the LeithChooses website, and via NextDoor, FaceBook, ‘X’,  and by email to all past applicants and to the wider mailing list. Unfortunately only 35 responses were received overall (thank you for those!), and no single option garnered even 50% of the votes. No new suggestions were put forward. The four options provided were:

  • Healthier and Safer Leith (13 votes)
  • Nurturing Connections (8 votes)
  • Culture and Creativity (7 votes)
  • Greener and Cleaner Leith (7 votes)

Because 35 responses can hardly be considered representative of the whole Leith community, after careful consideration and discussion, the LeithChooses Steering Group decided on a different theme, which we feel encapsulates the core of the most popular theme ‘Healthier and Safer Leith’, and is also broad enough to cover project proposals from the other three suggested themes / areas of activity.

Therefore the Theme agreed upon for 2025-2026 LeithChooses is:

“Well-being in Leith”

Now – what exciting community projects will local groups come up with, in line with that theme? Can’t wait to find out!

Applications to £EITH Chooses 2025/26 will open on Wednesday 13th August 2025.

 

Choose your themes for next year!

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Leithers, we need to hear from you, please!  We are planning for LeithChooses 2026 now, but as per our ‘Community Conversation’ commitments, we would like YOU to determine which topics or themes ought to be given priority. In the past, some years we have had very ‘open’ themes, other years we have asked that all project applications for funding should be focused on particular areas/types of activity.

Here are a few suggestions. Please select the one (or those) that you like best, and/or add your own suggestions.

  1. Healthier and Safer Leith
  2. Culture and Creativity
  3. Greener, Cleaner Leith
  4. Nurturing Connections
  5. Other (your ideas)

Please email your choices and ideas directly to LeithChooses@edinburgh.gov.uk, with ‘Themes for 2026’ in the subject line)

Update, 31 March 2025

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Most of this year’s successful community groups will have received their LeithChooses funding by now, from the Council Community Grants Fund, or very soon will, and will be starting on their project. We look forward to reporting more about these activities as they develop. Keep in touch and let us know of anything interesting going on, so we can pass that on to the Leith community.

Meanwhile the LeithChooses Steering Group is analysing the feedback provided by voters and applicants on the day and via our recent online surveys, and working on plans to streamine and improve the LeithChooses process in the future. Please get in touch at any time of you have any ideas, or would like to visit (or even join) the Steering Group.

Contact: LeithChooses@edinburgh.gov.uk

LeithChooses needs you! Please help by filling in a short evaluation survey.

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Thank you to everyone who applied to and/or voted during LeithChooses in 2024/25. We would be very grateful if you would complete a short survey about your experience as applicants and/or voters. These surveys should each take no more than 10 minutes to complete, and we would really value your feedback so we can keep working on improvements the LeithChooses process for this coming financial year.

The surveys are open for feedback until Monday 31st March.