A group of academics, trade unionists, former council leaders and journalists are starting a campaign to tackle the creeping centralisation that has left Scotland as one of the least locally governed countries in the world.
Building a Local Scotland believes local democracy is not working, even though decentralisation was promised as part of the Scottish devolution settlement. In fact, the opposite has happened. We must encourage politicians of all parties to honour their pledge before another quarter of a century passes.
Unbeknown to most citizens, Scotland has some of the largest councils in the world with an average population of 170,000, against a European average of just 10,000.
Highland Council, for example, covers a third of Scotland’s landmass and 11% of Great Britain. It is physically larger than Wales (with 22 local authorities), North Macedonia (80 municipalities) and Belgium (with 1 federal government, 3 language-based communities, 3 regional governments and 581 local councils). Six other Scottish councils including Aberdeenshire, Argyll and Bute and Dumfries and Galloway are also larger than the country of Luxembourg, (with 12 cantons and 116 communes (councils).
This is not local democracy
Scotland also has the smallest councillor cohort in Europe. England has an average of 2,814 people per councillor, Norway 572 and Denmark 2,216; but the average Scottish councillor looks after 4,155 constituents. This means councillors, through no fault of their own, must take decisions about areas they barely know. And now, with the prospect of swingeing cuts in public spending, it’s likely they’ll take community-altering decisions without any locals in the room.
Building a Local Scotland believes this must change and challenges every political party to admit the current system is unfit for purpose and breaches the contract made with the Scottish people 25 years ago.