Highlands MSP Emma Roddick has renewed calls for
smaller council areas as she pressed the Minister for Parliamentary
Business on whether he felt the Highland Council could be considered a
“local” authority.
The Highland Council is the largest of all council areas in Scotland, covering roughly one-third of the country, and a review of its wards recently failed to pass through Parliament with many raising concerns that rural areas were being short-changed in terms of representation.
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| MSP Emma Roddick |
Roddick said:
“The
Highland Council area is simply too large and therefore does not serve
rural or urban communities within it as well as it could or should. It’s
no wonder that Boundaries Scotland have been unable to come up with
suitable ward boundaries for it – there’s no logical reason Applecross
should be within the same local authority as Merkinch.
“It
is my strong belief that smaller councils are the only way to go to
ensure that the needs of people within the Highlands are met.
“Nobody can reasonably claim that the Highland Council is a genuinely “local” authority and I will continue to press for a solution.”
Good for Emma!
ReplyDeleteGreat for Highland to have a new, bright and able young MSP.
Emma wasn't around at the time of the Wheatley Commission. Lord Wheatley's thinking was right, although some of the subsequent implementation was unbalanced. Since that time, almost 50 years ago much has changed – and the Local Government Review in the 1990s was simply a political “fix” by a Tory Government to reduce the power-base of the old Strathclyde Region.
With Holyrood now embedded and independence (surely) around the corner, we need to re-shape the way that services are delivered. Some are better managed across the whole of Scotland, whilst others should be fully controlled, democratically at local level.
Nairn and Nairnshire have a real identity - historically and culturally and socially.
It's time to see an end of "The Highland Council" and re-create the old District Councils again.