Local Government and Devolution: Mutual Respect and Parity of Esteem?
Author | |
DOI | 10.3366/elr.2019.0581 |
Published date | 01 September 2019 |
Date | 01 September 2019 |
Pages | 428-434 |
In early 1992, Jean McFadden, leader of Glasgow District Council contrasted the “present consensus in favour of constitutional change” with the “bitter divisions which characterised the local government response to the devolution proposals of the 1970s”. McFadden maintained that the “unremitting hostility of the present government at Westminster” along with a “rapidly changing European Community” had led many in Scottish local government to reassess their view of devolution. This erstwhile opponent of devolution welcomed the prospect of a Scottish Parliament and expected that the relationship with local government should be “based on co-operation and consensus, rather than conflict and centralisation”.
A Commission on Local Government and the Scottish Parliament, chaired by former Strathclyde Regional Council chief executive Sir Neil McIntosh, was set up by Donald Dewar following the 1997 devolution referendum. McIntosh reported in June 1999.
In a package of recommendations, McIntosh envisaged a covenant setting out the relationship based on the European Charter of Local Self-Government with some “formal means of monitoring its application, advising each side on its working, and where necessary considering modifications”
It was perhaps inevitable that the establishment of a Scottish Parliament and Executive would become the focus of much public and media attention, draining attention away from local government. The new Parliament sought an important and acknowledged role in policy-making. The Holyrood chamber became a stage on which Parliamentarians raised what was often referred to as the “postcode lottery” with different parts of Scotland having different levels of services or policies creating a demand for uniformity.
Elections to the Scottish Parliament over-shadowed local government elections held on the same day in 1999, 2003 and 2007. The Single Transferable Vote (“STV”) was introduced for local government elections
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