Back to regional councils? [Scottish local government]
Arethosemyfeet
Shipmate, Heaven Host
in Purgatory
The Scottish Government has announced a consultation on Local Governance reform:
https://www.gov.scot/news/local-governance-reform/
It is extremely vague at present but many have noted a striking resemblance in general principles to the old regions and districts.
I moved to Scotland long after the regions were abolished, but their legacy survives in things like every Argyll high school going up to S6 rather than stopping at S4, because the old Strathclyde Region were committed to equality of provision. The region meant serious financial and administrative muscle and economies of scale, but... it also meant decisions about Jura and Inveraray being made in Glasgow. The new local bodies seem to be intended to be far smaller than the old districts, at least in rural areas, so I can fantasise that we'd get the best of both worlds.
I know we have a fair few Scots aboard ship, what do we think? Good, bad, ugly?
https://www.gov.scot/news/local-governance-reform/
It is extremely vague at present but many have noted a striking resemblance in general principles to the old regions and districts.
I moved to Scotland long after the regions were abolished, but their legacy survives in things like every Argyll high school going up to S6 rather than stopping at S4, because the old Strathclyde Region were committed to equality of provision. The region meant serious financial and administrative muscle and economies of scale, but... it also meant decisions about Jura and Inveraray being made in Glasgow. The new local bodies seem to be intended to be far smaller than the old districts, at least in rural areas, so I can fantasise that we'd get the best of both worlds.
I know we have a fair few Scots aboard ship, what do we think? Good, bad, ugly?
Comments
IMO, some restructuring is needed, but the proposal seems to be entirely related to efficiency and further cost cutting. There doesn't seem to any consideration of what local government is for, and in particular the local part of that. There is a danger that the current powers of local government remain in the larger proposed regions, and the local tier of more smaller authorities have little powers and resources. I'd much prefer those smaller local areas to have more power and resources than seems to be planned - covering things like planning and local development plans, not just bin collection timetabling.
There are, of course, some potential issues with smaller local government areas, especially in relation to funding (the big one being that some of those areas are going to be much poorer or richer, with corresponding differences in income from local tax and need for spending; very rural areas and urban areas will also have very different needs - but that is already a problem in places like South Lanarkshire where we have a council chamber dominated by people elected in urban wards near Glasgow, because that's where the population is concentrated, and a council area that is majority rural by area.) Larger regions average out some of that variation, but at the expense of making government even more distant for the majority.
As you may guess, I'm a strong believer in subsidiarity. There is some good in the proposals for smaller local areas, but these should have real powers in regard to meeting local needs. I'd quite like to see the powers and resources of Community Councils increased, which doesn't even appear in anything I've seen in these proposals. I'd also like to see more powers and resources moved from national government to more local, existing powers for national government to bypass local planning for national infrastructure should be curtailed to just that infrastructure that crosses local authority areas (new rail lines, for example) rather than take away local input into the placement of, for example, battery storage facilities.
I am assuming that the reorganisation would result in a two-tier system (regional and national), but maybe that's wrong and the plan is to have another tier below the regions?
I'm not clear how it will work in the NE, although I've had a busy couple of weeks and haven't kept up to speed. In church, one of our members asked for prayers for all council employees "facing an uncertain future."
If I'm reading it right the idea is that there would be a hyper-local tier, possibly community council level but possibly ward level or thereabouts. What actual powers and resources they would have is anyone's guess.
We've got our Community Development Trust AGM this evening, and I can't help wondering if the future for rural areas might involve putting such bodies on a statutory footing. I'd be very wary of devolving planning issues, however, as they'd be very vulnerable to deep-pocketed people using the courts to batter their way to whatever they want.
@Mortoniu the Ship's rules do not allow advertising. I have removed the link.
Hostly beret off
la vie en rouge, Purgatory host
Ah, that would put them around the same size as our current "ward areas" which are already the divisions (and have been, based on historic social work files, since Methuselah was in nappies) used for divvying up social work teams, planning applications, education management (sort of) and much else. In Argyll & Bute we have
Bute & Cowal, (Rothesay, Dunoon and environs)
Helensburgh & Lomond
Mid-Argyll, Kintyre & Islay (covering Lochgilphead, Campbeltown, points between and the southern Hebrides)
Oban, Lorn & the Isles (covering the more northerly part of the inner Hebrides)
Major council offices are already split between Dunoon, Lochgilphead, Campbeltown, Helensburgh and Oban, so there isn't that sense (like there can in Highland with Inverness) of decisions being made at the centre, but I suppose even if there was a micro-authority covering just the Inner Hebrides we'd still be hacked off about decisions being made based on life in Tobermory or Port Askaig.
On the basis we believe Mortoniu to be a bot rather than a person, I have banned it.
Doublethink, Admin
[/Admin]