Even before the latest proposals to cut councillors, academics were pointing to a ‘local democracy deficit’ in Scotland, saying there are proportionally fewer councils and elected councillors than anywhere else in Europe.
The paucity of local government representation in Scotland is highlighted in an article by Paddy Bort of the University of Edinburgh, while Duncan McTavish of Glasgow Caledonian University said ‘economies of scale’ had brought about a loss of community in local government restructuring in the 1970s.
Mr Bort pointed out that there are currently 1,223 council seats in Scotland – compared to 14,412 in Finland and 10,785 in Norway, both of which have similar populations.
He also pointed out that the number of local authorities in Scotland had fallen from 236 to 32 in 2001 – largely as a result of the reforms which in 1975 led to the ‘destruction’ of the burgh of Cove and Kilcreggan.
This meant that in Scotland the average population of each council area was 163,200 – compared to 3,437 in Austria, 10,295 in Norway and 19,381 in Denmark.
It is ironic that this contraction of local government, which threatens to take no account of community links and character, comes soon after the Community Empowerment Act was brought in at Holyrood.
Professor McTavish said there had a lot of disquiet at the time of local government restructuring in the mid 1970s, with some burghs feeling they had lost out in the mergers.
“I am sure there was a loss of amenity and assets when Cove and Kilcreggan was absorbed into Dumbarton,” he said.
“Policy makers did realise the loss of community implied in the 1975 reforms but economies of scale, ‘strategic planning’ etc trumped all this.
“So community councils were established, and these still exist, but never had much power.
“Interestingly local government in England, which is much more diverse than in Scotland, still has parish councils with some budget resource and these councils also involve democratic elections too.”
This is a joke; we should just set up a check point at the start of the B833 and make a unilateral declaration of independence; the People’s Independent Burgh of Rosneath Peninsula.