Frequently Asked Questions
Q1. How do I register so I can contribute to the online conversation by adding comments, proposals, vote etc.?
Go to register at the top right hand side of home page and follow the prompts.
Q2. I can log into Your Area, Your Voice, Your Choice successfully but why am I unable to support proposals or vote? I see a warning about “Only for users within the council area”.
This indicates that the user registered with myaccount using a postcode that is not based in the South Ayrshire council area.
Q3 Why has my activation email not arrived for my new South Ayrshire Your Area, Your Voice, Your Choice account?
There can be a variety of reasons why an activation hasn't arrived e.g. typo in your email address when registering etc. but there are things you can check/do. Check your spam or junk mail folder around the date you initially registered to make sure that the email has not been diverted by your mail provider e.g. gmail, yahoo, hotmail etc. Please add noreply@mail.communitychoices.scot to your list of contacts when logged into your email account as this will help to ensure the emails arrive in your inbox.
Q4. Can I register another person in my household to the same user account?
No. Each user has to create a unique account using a different email address. You cannot register more than one user against one email address.
Q5. The username I want is not available.
If the username you create has already been taken you will be asked to create a different unique one. You can do this by adding a special character or digit or by choosing another username.
Q6. The password I want to use is not being accepted?
Please ensure you are selecting an 8 character password.
Q7. Any comments or proposals I add have my username attributed to them. I don't want people to know that I wrote them.
All comments and proposals are attributed with the username of who wrote them. It is recommended you go into My account at the top right of the homepage on the Your Area, Your Voice, Your Choice platform
and update your username to something that is unidentifiable to other users so they cannot identify you or attribute to you any comments, proposals etc. that you may enter into the platform.
Make sure you save any updates using the 
button at the bottom of the page. Note updating your username in this part of the platform will not change your log in username to the Your Area Your Voice Your Choice platform. This update will only change the username presented with comments, proposals etc. within the platform.
Q8. What other sections of the South Ayrshire Your Area, Your Voice, Your Choice platform are there?
There is currently four main sections to the Your Area Your Voice Your Choice platform. These are:
"Consultations" - In the Consultations section of the platform there will be different topics or processes for discussion or feedback. You will be able to select any one of the topics, read the relevant information about the topic and then add your comments on the issues up for discussion. You can comment and evaluate other comments left by other users with the I agree or I don't agree buttons.
“Participatory Budgeting”: Groups and organisations can apply for PB funding and it gives the opportunity for users to decide on how part of the public budget is spent.
“Your vote” gives users the opportunity to vote on proposals from the community that have reached a predefined level of support in the community and also on certain proposals from Council or its partners that the community should decide on. Also allow to vote on Participatory Budget applications.
Funding Opportunities - Funding that becomes available to be administered by South Ayshire will be promoted and groups and organisations can apply through the platform.
Thriving Places - space for community groups and organisations across South Ayrshire to share information about projects that they would like to carry out. Our ambition is to create a lively portfolio of community projects that supports joint working and connects community groups to funding, making South Ayrshire an even better place to live, work, learn and visit.
Q9. What is the purpose of the “Consultations” section of the South Ayrshire Your Area, Your Voice, Your Choice platform?
The “Consultations” section of platform, also sometimes referred to as Collaborative Legislation or Processes section, is a method of participation for residents of South Ayrshire to comment on, modify and contribute to actions, plans, strategies or regulations the Council is putting in place.
Q10. Who can participate in the “Consultations” section?
Anyone registered on Your Area, Your Voice, Your Choice can make a contribution to any of the consultations/processes/topics in the section that are open. Comments and proposals are scrutinised by the relevant council service area and taken into consideration for the final drafting of the text.
Q11. How can I contribute to “Consultations” processes/topics?
There are processes/topics in which direct questions are asked that can be answered openly and other users’ answers can be voted on. In others, proposals can be made and prioritized between citizen proposals and those made by the Council. There is also the possibility of publishing the text of a regulation for comment, in that case you can select a part of the text to comment directly and support other comments.
Q12. What happens to the contributions once the “Consultations” process/topic has closed for contributions?
The Council takes into account all the opinions and contributions made by users and incorporates them into the regulations, plans, strategies or actions that are finally approved or carried out.