A new tier of local government - Development Councils - is required to have truly local government with a range of powers drawn from existing authorities. This is achievable within the existing powers of he Scottish goverment.
― Scotland is almost unique in Europe for not having a truly local level of government. What we currently call our Local Authorities are equivalent to a European Regional Government.
― The Community Councils we have instead of local government are essentially powerless and in many places are dysfunctional or non-existent (though excellent examples of Community Councils do exist)
― We propose a system of local government that draws from the best examples of Community Councils and Development Trusts to create what we are calling “Development Councils”
― Wholesale reform of local government is possible with the powers of devolution but disentangling governance systems – especially IT and data systems – would be costly and complex.
― A compromise solution is to create a system of municipal governments at a local level but enable them to “pull down” powers from the renamed Regional Authorities upon request. Civil servants responsible for administering those powers would then speak to the Development Council.
― The size and boundaries of the Development Councils would be determined by local residents taking into account of population size and historic community.
― The Councils would be elected on fixed terms and would be governed and directed by an annual Citizens’ Assembly of residents of their constituency.
― Development Councils should be fully funded and given local tax raising powers. An illustrative budget for several communities in Scotland is given as an example.