Over the last few years, the debate about Scotland's
councils seems to have focused heavily on the issue of how many of
them there are.
Under the current system, Scotland has 32 local authorities
providing services to around 5.3 million people. Compare that to
somewhere like Iceland, which has 74 councils and a population of
330,000, and you quickly realise that we're not the most
disparate country when it comes to local government. While few
would argue to design our current structure if you were starting
from scratch, an argument based on the number of councils per
capita inevitably oversimplifies a complex problem.
That's because looking at the number of councils is the
wrong place to start the discussion. While current structures may
be inhibiting them to some degree, it's more important to begin
with the outcomes that are needed and work back from there.
