Local democracy for local people

May 24th, 2010

Now the election is over and we have a shiny new coalition government in place, its back down to earth with a bump.

The knives are being sharpened and those long-promised cuts are threatening a public service near you.

And if the plans revealed by the health board and the police are anything to go by, the Scottish Government in Edinburgh has had their cuts agenda underway for some time.

The threat of police officers, teachers and nurses losing their jobs is a worrying indicator of where we are headed – and that is before the emergency budget that will take £6 billion out of the UK economy.

The reality may be that hard choices are going to have to be made that will impact heavily on our public services. 

As convener of the Local Government Committee, I was charged with overseeing an inquiry into how our councils are financed.

The situation faced by them was described by one of the professors who gave evidence as ‘the perfect storm’.

Increased demand for elderly care services, council tax freezes, slow collection rates, tight government settlements and even bad weather have all come together to impact on the state of the public finances.

Tough decisions are going to be taken to deal with these issues and they will have consequences for us all.

Questions are already being asked whether we should pursue the council tax freeze or continue the stealth charges for services which have increased by three per cent.

And there is a debate about whether services such as education should be delivered locally or nationally?

I believe questions about the future of local government are much too important to be left to politicians.

It is time to let local people in on the act for a wide ranging debate about the future of local democracy.