Give local communities real power over their futures, says report
A RADICAL “genuinely democratic” reform of local government in Scotland which puts the public in charge is being proposed to ministers by the Electoral Reform Society.
It has told ministers there should be constitutional reform of Scotland’s top-down local government giving local communities “real power over their futures”.
It wants action over concerns that Scotland is the most centralised nation in Europe with local councils stripped of key powers by government and distant powerful authorities.
A report by Convention of Scottish Local Authorities four years ago warned that local democracy “has been gradually dismantled over the last 50 years” from over 400 elected local governments in 1946 to 32.
The society, which is best known for promoting electoral reform, claimed the 32 top-level local authorities are often “distant and out of touch” with local communities.
And it is concerned that Scotland has now some of the lowest numbers of councillors per head of population in the whole of Europe.
It is telling ministers there should be a local government shake-up with wider representation below local authority level, with empowered citizens at the centre of the decision making process.
It suggests existing local authorities remain as ‘top tier’ local government alongside the roll out of new, legally-empowered development councils beneath them with expanded revenue-raising powers, similar to England’s parish and town councils.
Existing community councils and new ones would be given expanded revenue-raising powers to enable this to happen, said the group. The new, more-local development councils would be empowered to take action and improve local lives.
In responding to the Scottish Government’s consultation on reforming local government, it says that strengthened community councils would establish a “standing, annual citizens assembly for that area” and would be picked in a similar way to the jury system.
Willie Sullivan, director of Electoral Reform Society Scotland, said: “Local government is in dire need of an overhaul. Too often people feel local governance is done to the people, rather than by them.
“Scottish local governance operates within a very different context from the last time it was reviewed and changed. In 1995 there was no Google, Facebook or smartphones, and John Major’s government was in power at Westminster.
“Today, there is a feeling that in such a networked world, ‘local’ government in Scotland is top-down and distant. It has become an oligarchy at a time people want a better democracy.”
A Cosla spokesman said: “The Review of Local Governance is currently under wayto explore how more powers can be shared across national and local government and communities, and focus on how decisions that affect people’s lives can be made as close as possible to places in which they live. The review covers the whole of the public sector.”