ALL of local government in Scotland has been weakened by the departure of four authorities from its umbrella body, the country's most senior councillor has claimed.

David O'Neill, president of Cosla, said the organisation had finished last year "in an unhappy and unsatisfactory place" after Glasgow, Renfrewshire, South Lanarkshire and Aberdeen quit to set up a rival group.

In his first annual conference since last year's acrimonious split, Mr O'Neill said Cosla would spend the next year rebuilding, with the door still open for any of the four rebel authorities to return.

But he said the decision by four other councils to remain on board meant 2014 did not end as badly as it had threatened to.

In his keynote speech at the conference in Crieff, Mr O'Neill said the Referendum had overshadowed local government's attempts to secure more power for councils.

Last year Cosla called for the most radical overhaul of Scottish local government in decades, potentially tripling the number of councils and equipping them with major tax-raising powers by 2020.

But Mr O'Neill said the proposed Nordic-like model, which he described as "devolution within Scotland", had stalled.

He said: "Make no mistake, I feel the loss of any one member and the fact that four councils are still choosing to leave weakens the whole of local government including those four councils. Both myself and my political colleagues have done our best to create the circumstances where some felt able to change their decision.

"In one sense we ended the year in less difficulty than we might have but nevertheless, in terms of membership, in an unhappy and unsatisfactory place.

"I am convinced that there are enough councils and councillors who support that collective voice and from this position, we will become stronger not weaker."

The Cosla president added: "Here and now, for our most deprived communities, what happens within Scotland and how we are organised to deliver better outcomes is a much more pressing issue.

"Talks on devolution within Scotland seem to have stalled and, if anything, a more centralised approach within Scotland seems to be developing. Bits of this debate are ongoing but, in terms of real progress, little has changed."

In the context of oncoming further squeezes on local government finances, Mr O'Neill also called for a debate on the merits of universal services, claiming it was crucial "to avoid being seduced by the idea".

He said better-off people were more adept and successful in taking advantage of universal services, while those socially disadvantaged found it more difficult to access them and use them to help support their families.

He said: "To address this, I believe we must have a far greater focus on services which are specifically designed for particular communities and their circumstances."

Mr O'Neill also criticised the "national obsession with monitoring all services through a range of national targets", claimed the model of acute services was "now unfit for purpose and unaffordable" and added that while local solutions were best to tackle social disadvantage "we should not be distracted by these different circumstances".