Time for a fresh look at role of Scottish councils

Last week, along with colleagues from all political groups in North Lanarkshire Council, I attended the COSLA conference and listened to a very inspiring and illuminating contribution from Kevin Pringle, former SNP and Scottish Government adviser until 2015.

He stated that, both in structure and funding, local government has been kept frozen in time, still in a predevolution land that time forgot.

He evidenced this by claiming that since the establishment of the Scottish Parliament in 1999 the dominant discussions have been exclusively focused on demarcation between Holyrood and Westminster, with no productive discussions having taken place in relation to the actual or potential roles of local authorities in a changing political and financial environment.

It was also asserted that during this time significant powers have transferred from London to Edinburgh, while the Scottish Government has eroded the powers of councils – an issue which I and other colleagues have highlighted for some time.

Mr Pringle concluded that if residents value local government we have to revisit these issues and seriously reflect on the structure, role, funding and financial autonomy that “our councils need now”.

In short, he claimed that it is time to put the capital G in Scotland’s local governments and allow councils to become financially and structurally more autonomous.

This very powerful and measured contribution made me reflect on the current structural and financial challenges facing all 77 councillors in North Lanarkshire.

Cabinet secretary Derek Mackay has announced that the Scottish Parliament budget will be set on Wednesday, December 12.

Arising out of this, all councils will then be advised of any proposed cuts.

To date we have been advised by the head of finance that there is likely to be a £20 million shortfall.

This would take the total amount cut from the council’s budget to more than £220m since the SNP took charge in 2007 at Holyrood.

Unfortunately the SNP group in North Lanarkshire have refused to take their places on the budget sounding board, which was set up for all political and independent groups to review potential savings options.

This is a practice which is recommended by Audit Scotland and takes place in most SNP-controlled authorities, such as Renfrewshire.

I can only conclude that their refusal is because they do not appreciate the impact of such cuts or that they are in total denial.

In Mr Mackay’s speech to the SNP conference earlier this month he demanded that the Westminster government “spare us the sound bites – show us the money”.

I hope he heeds his own advice on December 12 and takes positive action to reduce any cuts to North Lanarkshire Council.

One of the main challenges facing councils is in relation to increased salaries for our employees.

I am delighted that public sector pay is rising again after years of a pay freeze. While some progress has been made on this, I am extremely concerned that the SNP government seems to value some public sector workers over others.

Schools are a prime example. John Swinney has already announced that the teachers’ pay increase will be the highest in the UK, welcome news for our hard-working teaching staff who play such a crucial role in our children’s lives.

However, the support staff in our schools do an equally outstanding job yet the Scottish Government has said it will only fund a pay increase of two per cent for them – well below what they plan to offer teachers.

Councils, in the interest of parity, will increase this to three per cent, the same as the offer to teachers.

This will cost North Lanarkshire Council £600,000.

It is simply unacceptable that the SNP do not regard all of our council staff equally for the vital work they do, and I hope they see sense on this issue and award all of our hard-working staff the same pay rise.

The dominant discussions have been exclusively focused on demarcation between Holyrood and Westminster