Why give councils more money when they waste the funds that they have?

do just that. In practice, they are just as pettifogging and officious, just as cavalier and unresponsive, as any Whitehall bureaucrat.

Take the appalling case of Sally and Brian Williams, who were ordered by Sheffield city council to remove a bed of dahlias they had planted opposite their house on the spurious grounds that it was dangerous to drivers. The Williamses, who say they were only looking after a patch of ground that the council had neglected, may win a reprieve after Sheffield was evidently embarrassed by the attention their wretched order has attracted.

There are so many stories like this, however, that never make the headlines: the community groups and charities that must pay ridiculous fees to the council to hold events in local parks, even if they provide volunteers to pick up litter or steward the attendees; the homeowners hounded by council officers about things they do legally on their own property; the parking charges that drive shoppers away; the people pushed into debt by the fines and penalties councils love to impose for the most minor of infractions. The overzealous use of bailiffs to recover council tax arrears is an absolute scandal.

Obviously, the solution to all this is not to abolish local government. Nor is it to do what many areas are doing, and consolidate power in enormous, arrogant mega-authorities. I would favour a radical decentralisation of power to villages and towns as the only way to achieve true accountability. And perhaps they do need some extra money. But whatever is done, the blame-shifting must end. We are poorly served when councils refuse to take responsibility for their terrible, repeated failures.