Drive south from the affluent suburbs of Bearsden to Giffnock across the River Clyde and, apart from the occasional signpost, you would never notice the moment you enter or leave Glasgow's city boundaries.
Drive south from the affluent suburbs of Bearsden to Giffnock across the River Clyde and, apart from the occasional signpost, you would never notice the moment you enter or leave Glasgow's city boundaries.
Yet within the space of less than 10 miles, you will have passed through three different local authorities, with widely different policies on schools, rubbish collections, and a difference in council tax charge of up to £174 for what is, effectively, the same home.
People in these areas work and shop in the city, they use its free parks and museums, their police and fire services are the same. Like many of those living around Edinburgh, Aberdeen, or Dundee, they have fled the city's administrative boundaries in search of higher achieving schools, lower council tax bills, and a better quality of life.
It is an uncomfortable truth that the residents of some of Scotland's wealthiest communities pay no council tax for the city services that they use.
THE NEW MAP
Ask anyone to make sense of the current map of Scotland's 32 local authorities and they will struggle for an answer.
The hotch-potch of city states and tiny rural backwaters was the result of an often arbitrary - and sometimes politically gerrymandered - process that broke Stirling from Clackmannan and Falkirk, split Ayrshire into three, divided Lanarkshire in two, and created affluent enclaves such as East Renfrewshire and East Dunbartonshire.
Few disagree that it is a mess that needs radical reform, but there seems little political will to do so, even when our authorities face uncertain financial futures and the risk of death by 1000 cuts.
So today The Herald sets out a much simpler model: one that we know will be controversial, but may commend itself to those prepared to think the unthinkable. Start with a blank sheet of paper and the confusion of local authorities can begin to be cleared up.
A merger of the three Ayrshires, the creation of a metropolitan Glasgow, a re-unification of the Lanarkshires, and a return to the old Grampian region not only makes far more sense by smoothing out many of the inequalities between cities and their more affluent suburbs, but it could also generate millions of pounds in efficiencies by removing costly tiers of administration.
Any move would be contentious, not least in the Highlands and the fiercely independent islands. But this ignores that many services such as health, enterprise, police, and fire are already delivered across far wider areas than the 32 separate local authorities.
This is not a party political issue. There have been attempts to grasp the nettle on all sides. The SNP government may have promised no boundary changes in this parliament, but its concordat and council tax freeze have already instituted one of the biggest changes in local government in the past decade.
Loudest among the chorus for change is the former Labour minister for local government and finance, Tom McCabe. During his ministerial tenure he attempted, unsuccessfully, as many of his colleagues shielded the fiefdoms of their party friends in councils, to force the "difficult decisions" associated with reform such as job losses and mergers on to the agenda.
Away from the restrictions of front-bench responsibilities, his views are more robust than before. He said: "Once you're of the view that 32 is not the right number, it's hard to be dissuaded. It's as good as impossible to justify 32 education directors and the huge tier of professionals below that. You could say the same about finance and social work.
"Of course there would be upfront costs in a re-organisation but, in the current system, we're living way beyond our means. We don't live in an ideal world with blank sheets of paper to start from, but we can't afford not to face up to the current situation.
"People get very agitated when reform is discussed but it's not just about councils looking after their own interests. They're being artificially cosy when the numbers don't add up. An overall plan for Scotland is bigger than individual councils because this balloon is going to burst.
"More money is being spent sustaining organisations rather than on delivering services. It seems 14 or 15 would be a better option. That presents massive opportunities for greater synergies with other public services."
Mr McCabe added: "It comes down to whether you're operating in a real or pretend economy and my view is that it's the latter. The crux is that local authorities are there to deliver services and this produces a good number of sustainable and safe jobs. The equation must be that way around."
The Tories, ironically the party many blame for the current arrangements, now argue for opening the debate. Scottish Tory spokesman on local government Derek Brownlee said: "Scotland in 2009 is much different to the Scotland when reorganisation was introduced.
"There was a strong case against reform when the parliament was established, because local government was adjusting to the new set-up.
"Ten years on, with the benefit of experience both of the reorganised local government and Scottish Parliament, is the ideal time to debate what we expect from local - and central - government.
"An open debate about how local we can expect local government to be, and what scope there may be for devolving power down to councils or beyond should be something we can all engage in. We don't start with a predetermined outcome."
FINANCIAL CRISIS
Perhaps the most pressing need for change comes because of the dire financial state the councils are now in. The backdrop is the global economic crisis, a haemorrhaging of all revenue streams, a massive hike in energy costs, and the need for £500m in "efficiency savings".
Should Scotland mirror how the private sector is coping with the downturn, by cutting duplication and bureaucracy? CBI Scotland director Iain Macmillan has concerns over the costs and appetite of redrawing the map, but believes there is a great deal of scope for collaboration. He said: "Take for example the central region of Stirling, Falkirk, and Clackmannanshire.
"Couldn't their back office functions of finance and human resources be shared as a starting point? Clusters of councils could come together and share and make savings, to the extent clusters could bring together education and social work and achieve some rationalisation there as well.
"Do local councils need to undertake all these services individually?
" And should they even provide services such as refuse collection and roads maintenance themselves or should they be put out to competitive tender?
"The principal role of councils is not job creation, but delivering services at the best possible cost to the taxpayer."
His views are echoed by Neil McGarvey, an expert in local government based at Strathclyde University, and co-author a number of papers on the state of Scotland's councils with Professor Arthur Midwinter, perhaps the nation's leading expert on council finances. He said: "From a financial perspective, reform could save money and the economies of scale notion could be explored.
"The pressure to reform may come financially in the medium to longer term. It is a lot different in 2009 than was the case in 1995, in that there will be massive pressures on the local budget for the next three to four years, the pressures from savings, the local income tax.
"The council tax standstill is not sustainable given the pressure on those budgets and, when councils get around to awarding pay rises, the impact on budgets is phenomenal. The more examples of shared services we may see going on the more the map of Scotland looks ridiculous.
"But there's localised pressure not to share services, with certain local councillors refusing to involve themselves with their neighbours as a matter of principle."
SHARED SERVICES
So far, reform based on voluntary sharing, has been a non-starter. Three years ago, the then Scottish Executive estimated public bodies spent an estimated 5% to 15% of their operational budget on support services, such as IT, payroll, and human resources.
This represented about £1.2bn and £3.7bn a year, and a 20% cut would mean savings of £250m to £750m annually. Examples could include a single agency collecting council tax and paying housing benefits, and a single computer and communications system common to all parts of the public sector.
Social care administration, road maintenance, the running of tribunals, and payment systems could be delivered in a standardised way so that the most efficient method is adopted nationwide. In theory, the outlay could be clawed back within two years.
Yet despite Cosla, the umbrella body for the 32 councils, claiming it would undertake the change, government support and the successful examples from countries such as Canada, nothing meaningful has happened.
Some authorities fear they are surrendering power and identity. Some want to be courted rather than doing the courting and avoid the risk of being labelled "predatory" or "expansionist". Glasgow has already offered the Scottish Government its blueprint on sharing reform and signalled it is just waiting on the call, but as yet has heard nothing.
Rhondda Geekie is Labour leader of East Dunbartonshire Council, one of Scotland's smallest and most successful local authorities. She said: "We need to sit around the table and look at all this again. It's not just our relationship with Glasgow but with Stirling and the other central authorities. There's less building going on so do we all really need design teams and squads of architects?
"Over this year we're going to look at our whole organisation and look at our structures and how we can save money. In East Dunbartonshire, we're looking at £6m savings. To deliver that we need to look at how services are delivered out there and if that's with other bodies, we're happy to look at that.
CITIES
Reform would also redress the imbalance in Scotland's key urban areas, restoring cities as the priority areas. In recent years, the leaders of all Scotland's major cities have called for special status and improved funding.
Edinburgh feels aggrieved that its capital status is largely unrecognised in its financial settlement but Margo Macdonald MSP recently secured an additional £3.5m for Edinburgh to help fund its challenges as the nation's capital.
Glasgow, with its civic collection of libraries and museums, attracts footfall from its neighbouring and distinctly more affluent neighbours, yet no council tax contribution.
The same applies to the upkeep of its wealth of listed buildings and roads, used by almost half its workforce who live outside the city boundaries.
Its leader Steven Purcell agrees with US expert Edward L Glaeser that central government should help shore up the balance sheets of local government to ensure they do not make the downturn worse by cutting spending during a recession.
He said: "Glasgow has already committed to being as flexible as possible with businesses and channelling what resources we can into helping businesses to weather this storm.
"However, I share Professor Glaeser's view that local government can spend available resources in a way that will deliver both a short-term economic boost and long-term community benefit. The Scottish and UK Governments must take this into account when they take decisions in the next few months."
East Renfrewshire is by far the success story of the 1990s reorganisation, with the highest performing schools and best standard of living over all. It is also cited as the most glaring example of the inequalities it has thrown up.
Unsurprisingly its leader, Labour's Jim Fletcher, puts up a stout defence of its continued existence, claiming local needs were ignored during the days of the Strathclyde region and that a smaller, more manageable area, brings local government closer to the people. But he rejects the accusations his citizens fail to contribute to the services they use in neighbouring Glasgow.
He said: "We keep talking about efficiencies, but what about the people who live in East Renfrewshire?
"They would go to the barricades to protect this authority, even those who do not fall into the obvious East Renfrewshire demographic. You can't accuse us of being ripped out of Glasgow because we were never part of it.
"I don't believe people from outside Glasgow freeload, if that is the accusation. The vast majority of the money, upwards of 80%, comes centrally and we contribute towards that."
From 34 county councils in 1890 to an uncertain future
Before 1890 Up until 1890, there were 34 county councils in Scotland whose areas had evolved over the centuries from the mormaerdoms, stewartries and sheriffdoms of medieval Scotland. The landscape of governance was chaotic in places, with numerous enclaves and exclaves.
Cromartyshire, for example, was a series of small areas scattered across Ross-shire. Lewis was governed as part of distant Ross-shire, while Harris and the Uists formed part of even more distant Inverness-shire.
1890 - 1974 The map was reorganised into 33 county councils to leave a system that in some areas was much neater than the one it replaced.
Dunbartonshire (the name was changed from Dumbartonshire in the early 1900s) was squeezed between Stirlingshire and Lanarkshire. The Western Isles remained split between two counties whose county towns were Dingwall and Inverness.
The land and its people was also ruled on a local level by parish councils and town councils, but the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1929 passed the functions of parish councils to larger district councils and a distinction was made between large burghs - those with a population of 20,000 or more - and small burghs.This was further refined by the passing of the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1947.
1975 -1995 In 1975 sweeping changes passed by Edward Heath's Conservative government (1970-1974) introduced a system of two-tier local government in Scotland divided between large regional councils and smaller district councils. Twelve regional councils were created - including Strathclyde and Central - and most were divided between three and nine districts. The three island councils, Western Isles, Shetland and Orkney were single councils with combined powers of both the region and the district.
Strathclyde was the largest region in the country with a population in excess of two million and stretched from the Highlands to the Southern Uplands. There were 19 districts within the region, including Glasgow, Bearsden and Milngavie and Dumbarton.
The regions were responsible for large-scale services, including education, social services and public transport and district councils focussed on matters such as local planning issues, refuse collection and environmental health.
1996 - present In 1996, Tory leader John Major (1990-1997) abolished the system put in place by one of his predecessor, merging the powers of the regions and the districts into 32 new unitary authorities. The aim was to simplify the system and improve delivery of services but it was also seen as a Conservative stealth move to break up Labour fiefdoms and create little Tory enclaves.
The new councils vary widely in size - some are the same as counties, such as Clackmannanshire, which serves just 48,000 citizens. Some are the same as former districts, such as Inverclyde and some are the same as the former regions, such as Highland, which serves 210,000 residents.
The changes took effect in 1996 with shadow councillors elected in 1995 to oversee the smooth transition of control.
