What A Waste

A little while back, a minor storm erupted in the Scottish press after the countries police chiefs called for some of Scotland's 32 local authorities to be scrapped.

Now the howls of outrage came from all the usual suspects who complained about the threat to local democracy and that having fewer councils - didn't necessarily mean better services.

But this just seems like so much nonsense to me - because who can explain, never mind justify, the reason for having three separate councils covering Ayrshire (North, South and East) - which is of course a tiny part of Scotland in both population and geographical terms.

The president of the ASPS (Association of Scottish Police Superintendents) - David O'Connor - queried the current 32 council structure following the creation in April 2013 of a new national single police and fire services in Scotland.

Which seems like a perfectly sensible point to be raising, if you ask me - and David  O'Connor explained his argument with the following comment:

"Police are undergoing a journey of reform to improve services and reduce costs. It is tough. But they cannot be expected to bear the brunt of cuts alone. A lot of what the police do, they do in partnership. I think there should be an open, constructive and pragmatic debate about reform of the 32 local authorities and 14 health boards. Are there too many, is there duplication of effort and cost? Can we afford not to consider reducing these numbers?"

Mr O'Connor went on to call for options surrounding reform to be debated across the public sector including the use of a single emergency service and shared emergency service contact centres - before adding:

"Fewer local authorities and health boards could mean fewer senior management posts, better services and reduced costs."

Not being naive, I can well understand why people and organisations who do well out of the current bloated structures - argue not to be 'too hasty' and to 'wait and see' how the new national Police and Fire Services work out.

But that is the same old tune these people have been singing for years - and if they get their way they will still be singing the same song in another 20 years time - while presiding over an expensive job creation exercise that stems from a 1996 reorganisation of local government in Scotland - imposed by the Tories.

Here's what I said on the subject back in September 2010.      

Why Does Ayrshire Need 3 Councils? (21 September 2010)

As the country comes to terms with our massive national debt - no one is arguing about the need to bring public spending under control.

The argument is about how far and fast to move.

Even the Labour Party agrees that two thirds of the spending cuts planned by the coalition government - would have been made if Labour had returned to power.

But now that Labour is in opposition - the party is trying to have its cake and eat it at the same time.

At least while the Labour leadership contest is underway - which is the nature of modern politics, sadly.

Yet there are obvious things that can be done to spend public money more wisely - the Accounts Commission in Scotland, for example, is asking:

Do we really need 32 councils in Scotland - with all the duplication and bureaucracy this involves - because councils employ more senior officials than is really necessary?

What is so special about Ayrshire for example - which has three separate councils for goodness sake.

North, East and South Ayrshire - all of them combined still much smaller than Glasgow.

What a complete waste of money and resources.

When you consider that all the three councils need their own chief executives - and highly paid directors of this that and the next thing.

In times like these - money should be concentrated where it belongs - on front line services.