‘Opportunities’ if councils merge
The leader of Dundee Council says there could be opportunities from a possible merger of local authorities – including transport.
Scottish Government released further details of its plans last month, outlining proposals to reduce the country’s number of councils to between six and 10 regional authorities.
These would then sit alongside 120 to 160 smaller community bodies in a two-tier system.
That could lead to the creation of a larger Tayside authority which brings together Dundee, Angus, and Perth and Kinross.
Angus councillors recently raised concerns around the lack of detail around the proposals and what they could mean for Angus.
In a special meeting of Perth and Kinross Council to discuss the controversial reforms, councillors unanimously agreed to strongly oppose further centralisation of services.
However, speaking to the Local Democracy Service, Mark Flynn, the leader of Dundee City Council’s SNP administration, said that a regional model could present opportunities but that further understanding of the proposals is needed.
He said: “I think their opposition is based on experience they had with Tayside region, and there is a number of people who are still in politics at the moment who experienced that.
“But if we think back to the 90s and how the boundaries were created, Dundee district was a different entity at that particular point, our boundaries now are very tight in what we do.”
The region’s three councils already work together in certain areas, including through Tayside Contracts – which provides services like school meals, road maintenance, winter response and cleaning.
It is governed by a joint committee of councillors from all three local authorities.
Mr Flynn highlighted that transport is a possible area which could benefit from a possible council merger. First Minister John Swinney promised to bring Scotland’s bus network under public control by the end of parliament.
He said: “If we look at Dundee, Perth and Kinross and Angus, is there opportunities there? We do a lot already amongst ourselves, Tayside Contracts being a good example.
“I think transportation is one where we could say the government could have a transport strategy which would be delivered by a transport region, which could then be, just for example, the three local authorities together. And again, still retain the local authority structure, so the people are still getting delivery by local councillors.
“There is a structure in there that could work, but again we have to make sure we can deliver on that and make sure we can actually put that into the consultation, if that was the thoughts of the other local authorities.
“Again, we’ve got to have these conversations as of yet. There is a lot to be discussed in these months, and I can appreciate that three months doesn’t seem like a long time, but we don’t know what’s going to happen after those three months. There may be a more definitive programme after that, there may be a programme to develop after that. I really don’t know.”