The main purpose of the consultation was to ascertain: whether awareness of community projects had increased after launching Aspiring Places and to gather feedback about the site to inform improvements.
There was a total of 390 responses and the key findings were:
Awareness of community projects increased across all stakeholder groups, most of all among council officers
Level of participation - 83% project proposals published on Aspiring Places were also submitted Expressions of Interest for funding.
User satisfaction:
85% of users who published a project were satisfied with the submission process.
80% of project-uploading groups found the platform valuable.
What was decided as a result of the response
While the response was positive, it has become clear that a wider piece of work is required to look at the council's grants strategy and practice before a final decision can be made about the future of Aspiring Places. The review is in progress and will conclude at the end of 2026. In the meantime, Aspiring Places remains live.
