WEST Dunbartonshire Council is to benefit from a share of a £1.5m Scottish government fund designed to increase the numbers of people involved in making decisions about investment in their areas.

The local authority is one of 33 organisations from across Scotland who were successful in securing Community Choices Funding in 2017/18.

And WDC will now coin in a windfall of £25k, which will help enable more locally based events and provide financial backing to community schemes and projects.

A spokesperson for WDC said: "West Dunbartonshire Council is delighted to receive £25k of Community Choices Funding which will be used to build on work to involve residents in decision making and budgets to benefit local communities."

The national fund, which targets deprived communities, received 91 applications with 16 successful community organisations and 17 successful councils.

Local Government and Housing Minister Kevin Stewart said: "What is so important about the Community Choices Fund is that it puts decisions about how we invest in communities into the hands of the people who live and work in them.

"Each of these projects is about making people more equal and improving their lives, for the communities themselves to lay out exactly how that should be done.

"Since 2014, £4.7 million has been invested through the Community Choices Fund.

"Last year it helped support more than 1,300 local projects selected through a vote by members of the local community.

"This further £1.5 million will now pave the way for even more people to get involved and make a real difference in their family, friends and neighbour’s lives."

Locally, West Dunbartonshire Council oversee a scheme called Community Budgeting.

It's a fund that supports a variety of projects to improve local areas including community gardens, improvements to buildings, IT and sports equipment and a range of other projects supported by local residents through this process.

Groups or individuals can pitch for cash and votes are cast for the best ideas.

The successful applicants are then handed cash for the community projects.

The final phase of the scheme takes place this month, whereby applicants will pitch for remaining cash left over from the first two waves of Community Budgeting, before another vote to determine the winners.

A council spokesperson said: "This successful approach, known as Community Budgeting, has seen more than £300,000 given out to worthy causes.

"The remainder of the community budgeting fund will be progressed through a third and final phase which will open this month.

"The Council is committed to involving residents in decision making and as agreed in the Strategic Plan this money will also be used to engage with our residents."