Local democracy in Scotland is too distant from the towns and villages it is supposed to represent.
Scotland has some of the largest councils in the world with an average population of 170,000, against a European average of just 10,000.
Highland Council, for example, covers a third of Scotland’s landmass and 11% of Great Britain. It is physically larger than Wales (with 22 local authorities). Six other Scottish councils including Aberdeenshire, Argyll and Bute and Dumfries and Galloway are also larger than the country of Luxembourg, (with 12 cantons and 116 communes (councils)).
How can councils that large be responsive to local needs? Or give people the opportunity to take part in their own governance? Devolution in the UK shouldn’t stop at the Scottish Parliament, power needs to continue down to truly local, local councils.
In recent years, ERS Scotland has worked on a number of campaigns.
The Dunfermline New City Assembly is a project about the future of Dunfermline. The Electoral Reform Society Scotland, Fife Council and the Scottish Government are working with local people, groups and organisations to bring everyone together and make plans for the city’s future.
We joined a group of academics, trade unionists, former council leaders and journalists who’ve crossed party and constitutional divides in pursuit of a shared political aim. To tackle the creeping centralisation that has left Scotland as one of the least locally governed countries in the world.
The group launched a declaration: Building a New Local Democracy in Scotland.
The Act As If We Own the Place campaign is dedicated to improving Scotland’s local democracy.
We are calling for parties to:
An elected second chamber and deliberative democratic processes can ensure that citizens can make decisions that have real impact.
The background, ideas, processes and outcomes of a collaborative experiment in local democracy run in collaboration with Coalfields Regeneration Trust.