IT IS ever more obvious that we should have tried to fix local government's roof while the sun shined.
Seeking to affect repairs in the teeth of brutal austerity is going to prove extremely difficult. Let's not lapse into a counsel of despair, but the time for a more energetic approach to shared services and back office functions is long overdue
This we know. In the early days of the fledgling Scottish Parliament our local authorities were relatively generously funded. Of course, Cosla did not concede that at the time, which is understandable, but with hindsight it is clear there was some fat on the bone.
Now, we have councils already overstretched, about to be burdened with more care for the elderly, and facing a wave of cuts which are scarcely imaginable.
Should we have revisited the boundaries ridiculously imposed by the Tories in a fit of gerrymandering under John Major? Without a doubt. The 32-council imposition was a catastrophe, particularly for Glasgow which was cut off from the tax base of the city's natural hinterland.
Yes, Strathclyde was too big, while Lothian and other authorities were probably about right, but there has been little appetite for a further, costly, reorganisation, with handsome payments for the senior council staff affected.
That is all the more true today, but as our front page story makes clear, Glasgow is facing something close to a meltdown, with savings required in excess of £100 million and job cuts in the thousands "just to keep the lights on".
The city expects to shed 3,000 jobs over the next three years as it battles to do this without affecting front-line services. It is a microcosm of the picture across the country, which is why The Herald this week relaunched its Reshaping Scotland campaign calling for local authorities to be more innovative in terms of collaboration and the sharing of back-room services. Progress on this has been painfully slow, and it may be time for Holyrood Ministers to bang some heads together to force the pace of change.
The Arbuthnott report has come and gone with far too little action taken on it by councils. We need a fresh look at both the existing boundaries of our local government system and at the funding mechanism to support our councils. We understand the Scottish Government's commitment to the council tax freeze, and we are aware the next Holyrood election is now less than a year away, but we need some courage in confronting the enormity of the difficulties faced by the present system.
There may be an electoral price to pay for the party that makes bold pledges on radical reform of our council funding system, but is it too much to hope that there could be a bounty for those who advocate brave reform?
The SNP was burned once in the past for its pledge on a penny for Scotland, so its political caution is understandable, but following the collapse of its plans for local income tax, the blunt instrument of the council tax freeze has gone on too long. Let us hope a seemingly all-powerful SNP can find in its current strength the courage to advocate far-reaching reform.
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