Seize the opportunity and debate public sector reform
In this ViewPoint contribution former councillor Dr Jonathan Wills wonders why there isn’t already a lively public debate about public sector reform
FOR YEARS now, Shetland councillors have moaned about the allegedly centralising SNP Government and demanded ‘more autonomy’.
Well, now it seems that more local home rule is on offer, as SNP ministers prepare the biggest reform of Scottish local government since 1975. That was the year the Zetland County Council was amalgamated with Lerwick Town Council to form Shetland Islands Council.
In drafting a new local government law, the Scottish Parliament needs to hear what changes councils actually want. So a nationwide consultation is under way and, rather than taking a ‘one size fits all’ approach, ministers are willing to take into account the special circumstances of Shetland, Orkney and the Western Isles.
In all these island groups it’s more expensive to provide the usual range of public services because of scattered settlement patterns, low population density and higher transport costs, among other things. That’s why we already receive about one and a half times more government cash per head of population than the towns and cities of the Central Belt.
So, what exactly do our councillors want? How much autonomy is enough?
- Should there be fewer but better paid councillors, so that standing for election becomes a realistic, affordable option for public-spirited citizens who have small children and big mortgages?
- Would our councillors like to take NHS Shetland under their wing, restoring control of our health service to locally elected and publicly accountable people?
- How about councillors controlling local inshore fisheries out to 12 miles? There’s a successful precedent with the ‘regulating order’ for shellfish boats.
- Could they take back some or all of the responsibilities that were handed to the Scottish Environment Protection Agency, many years ago?
- Are there other government agencies, such as Historic Environment Scotland and Nature Scot, whose work in Shetland (or at least some of it) might be better done by an elected local body directly accountable to the public?· Should our council have the use of all the Crown Estate revenues raised from around the islands?
- Should the SIC, rather than the government, take planning decisions on large energy projects on and around Shetland?
- Perhaps councillors might ask for more local devolution, by delegating some SIC powers, responsibilities and revenue to community councils? Could Bressay Community Council, for example, administer some of the SIC’s functions in the island? Organising the home help service? Doing annual road maintenance? Deciding uncontentious planning applications? Owning land for building starter homes? ‘Home Rule for Bressa’? Or even Lerwick?
- Will the SIC ask the Association of Shetland Community Councils which powers they’d like to see devolved to ‘the parish pump’?
In Norway and many other European countries elected local district councils have many more responsibilities and bigger budgets than community councils over here.
I hear the council leader and her expensive thinktankers are working on these questions. They don’t have much time because our new local democracy will be taking shape early next year.
If councillors don’t agree on a detailed Shetland shopping list, they may end up having the government writing it for them.
So, will there be public meetings about this? Is there a website or a postal address where we can leave our views? And have our elected representatives asked the many voluntary organisations serving the islands what they’d like to see happening with the new system? What does Voluntary Action Shetland think?
I’ve been away on holiday so perhaps I’ve missed some major development in the extensive public consultation that may already be under way.
A cynic might say the present SIC’s record doesn’t exactly inspire confidence that it could take on even more responsibilities.
After all, do we really want even more grossly-overpaid officials whose reports, written in dense bureaucratic dialect, sometimes can’t readily be understood by councillors, let alone the public?
Hopefully, the cynics will be proven wrong, and Shetland will get the local democracy we deserve. But if the SIC doesn’t seize the initiative this very month, we’re unlikely to have another chance for at least ‘another generation’, to coin a phrase.
As they say in Ottawa, ‘Elbows Up!’
Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response to be considered for publication in our Letters or ViewPoint sections, please contact us at letters@shetnews.co.uk
