Local Government Reorganisation

I think all of us elected members were shocked when we found out through the media what the SNP Government are proposing to do to Local Government. This was not mentioned at all in the SNP manifesto and SNP Councillors seemed none the wiser. (‘Local Government’ was mentioned just once in the 26 manifesto!)

The proposal is to abolish existing councils and create new ‘regional governments’ and ‘community planning’ authorities of around 6 per existing council. Both tiers would contain the same elected members. It would be the biggest change since the 1990s, and yet there are just a few weeks to respond to this proposal with no prior warning. Said Cllr Beal “This would be possibly the worst in a long line of botched reorganisations that neither provide good value for the tax payer or devolve power from the SNP Government.”

It seems to have been very badly thought out – for example what building can host 300 elected members? LibDems believe that power should be devolved from Governments to a more local level, but this is not it.