Murcia Participation Platform - Murcia
Murcia (Spain)
At the Citizen Engagement Portal of Murcia City Hall, you can participate and decide about different topics, by generating a proposal (individually or with other people), participate in debates, prioritise projects to be implemented, attend face-to-face meetings and other actions.
Registered citizens >15 years of age can submit proposals at www.murciadecide.es (Murcia decides). The portal aims to involve citizens, district boards, as well as neighbourhood, environmental and youth associations, among others.
Each person (individual) may submit a maximum of three proposals. They have to be of municipal competence and of a sustainable nature, for a maximum amount of 150,000 euros (estimate). In total, the City Council has reserved 5.3 million euros for the project, and each of the 8 districts will be able to benefit from proposals up to 500,000 euros (totalling 8 million) and 1,300,000 euros will be allocated to actions that cover the entire municipality.
Proposals for Municipal Investments include construction (equipment or small infrastructures), urban furniture and infrastructures, refurbishment, renovation, expansion, adaptation, improvement, and technologic equipment or furniture for public facilities and redevelopment and improvement of public spaces.
PHASES:
1.- Submit your investment proposal: January 21, 2022 to February 11, 2022
2.- Analysis of the proposals by the Technical Commission: February- March 2022 (6 weeks)
3.- Vote on the projects: March-April 2022 (3 weeks)
4.- Publication of the winning projects: April 2022
5.- Monitoring of the winning projects
The voting process is open to all citizens over 16 years of age and registered as a resident in the municipality.
In the three-week window 950 unique proposals have been submitted by citizens.
This online initiative is in accordance with the following Tallinn Principles on user-centricity:
3.1 & 3.2 The process is online and open to all. Assistance for citizens is available through FAQ,, direct contact and interaction via email and telephone. The platform is embedded in the municipal webpage and is direct, straightforward and easy to understand. Murcia City Hall disclaimer, legal and privacy details as well as secure http webpage are in place.
3.3 & 3.7 The forms are easy and comprehensive so no extraordinary effort is required by citizens in a completely digital process to allocate city funds. The process and proposals offered are in compliance with all data protection requirements.
3.4 & 3.6 Process fully online, people can follow up on their proposal and see how many votes they receive real-time. Only cost for citizens is time, as the municipality has an ample network of libraries with computers and internet access available for those people that do not have those means.
3.5 & 3.8 The participatory budget process involves citizens directly in municipal policy and public services by having a budget available for the implementation of proposals. People can directly interact with the local administration to redress or complain regarding.
-This is a unique way for citizens to influence municipal policy and investment.
-There is a bases of equality in distributing investments by districts as well as having overall impact proposals.
-These are proposals that will directly impact the districts and neighbourhoods they have been proposed for.
- find the webpage
- register as a user
- submit the proposal
- complete all requested information
Then a feedback round was held individually to assess the experience, what difficulties they encountered, and reviewing if they understood the extended process and its workings.
The results were satisfactory.
We also had specific days where in municipal centres, specialised personnel would attend citizens and help them submit their proposals in an “offline” effort to support the use of the platform, targeted specifically at elderly people.
