DAN MACKAY: Drastic action needed for skint council to provide sustainable services
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The Real Mackay by Dan Mackay
It was certainly a "sign of the times" for the residents at Reiss to see the roadside signpost in the village finally re-instated after many months of delay.
The absence of the sign, which had apparently been toppled by high winds, had led to confusion amongst passing tourists seeking to follow the North Coast 500 and had led to some driver confusion and motorists taking the wrong turning.
Cllr Jan McEwan states she first raised concerns with Highland Council when she was elected last May but it is only now that matters have been resolved. Cllr McEwan has said that the issue had been greatly disturbing the life of residents, with motorists turning into a normally quiet residential street “quite often in a convoy”.
Yet why was Highland Council so slow to act?
It seems McEwan, who also serves as the Wick town provost, may unwittingly have been describing the end days of the council just as Nero played his fiddle whilst Rome burned.
The council, for its part, had blamed issues surrounding the supply and delivery of replacement materials. But was it reasonable for council tax payers to have to wait a year?
Well done to Cllr McEwan for her perseverance but if an elected representative who has the added kudos of provost status cannot get the local authority she both serves and holds to account in a timely manner, then what chance does anyone else have?
Everyone knows the council is skint. Just look at the state of the roads. Even the Botswana roads department can do a better job! Yet, somehow, despite the legion of massive potholes, Highland Council can still find the necessary tarmac for road calming measures most townsfolk believe is superfluous to requirement – especially with the reduced speed limit in town.
Now Audit Scotland is demanding radical changes across Scotland’s councils. With high demands on services, ongoing workforce pressures and coping with the aftermath of the Covid pandemic, the local authority watchdog says that councils need to adopt a more collaborative approach if services are to be maintained.
Growing backlogs, performance deterioration, financial hardship and a poverty-related attainment gap, they say, are just a few of the signs of an emerging crisis.
Rising homelessness, unmet needs in the social care sector, and a drop in recycling rates alongside falling levels of street cleanliness are just some of the signs of services at risk or declining.
With government funding from Holyrood expected to fall in real terms and inflation running at a historic high, though expected to drop in the coming months, action is now needed, according to Audit Scotland, to deliver sustainable services.
Their latest report, an overview of local government in Scotland in 2023, calls for innovative measures (some of which arose from the pandemic) to redress community needs and inequalities. This, they say, will require greater collaboration between councils and their partner agencies.
But to do so will require "driven leadership, greater workforce resilience and more flexible funding".
Tim Mckay, acting chairman of the Accounts Commission, says a “New Deal for local government is long overdue. One that will give councils longer term financial stability, supporting them to make decisions and make the fundamental decisions urgently required”.
For council tax payers facing hikes to their monthly charges, it cannot come too soon.
