Councils, governments, boards … it can be very confusing why these things are different and what each is responsible for.
For the upcoming local elections on May 5, voters will be choosing who they would like to represent them on their local council.
But we bet some of you are wondering, what exactly does a council do? What is it there for?
What are councils responsible for?
There are 32 local councils in Scotland made up of councillors directly elected by the residents of the area they represent. Every council has a huge list of responsibilities.
They are in charge of a lot of day-to-day services you probably don’t give a lot of thought to. Your council will collect your bins, resurface roads (though not trunk roads and motorways, we’ll talk about that later), fix streetlights and bus shelters, and refurbish parks and play areas.
But they also have other major jobs to do in running schools, nurseries and leisure centres and making often groundbreaking decisions for your local area with regards to housing, planning, licensing, social care and probably one of the first things that comes to mind when people mention councils, setting council tax rates.
What is the difference between governments and councils?
The easiest way to think about this, on a broad scale, is that councils are only responsible for your local area whereas the Scottish Government has wider responsibilities across the whole of the country.
For example, the Scottish Government is in charge of making sure trunk roads and motorways are up to scratch because these roads will go through more than one local authority area. The M8 for example has nothing to do with Glasgow City Council or any council area it passes through. So, if you see a pothole in the fast lane, get your MSP on the phone, not your councillor.
There are sometimes disputes between what the Scottish Government should be in charge of and what should remain in council hands. One of the most controversial subjects at the moment is the Scottish Government proposal to create a National Care Service, meaning Scottish ministers would become accountable for adult social care – and potentially child social care - rather than councils. Many councils strongly believe this isn’t the way to improve social care services and some have officially come out against the move.
Do councils work independently all the time or do they link up with the Scottish and UK governments?
On a lot of matters, councils do their own thing, but there will be times where they will work in partnership with the Scottish Government on things like town centre regeneration or major infrastructure projects which will not only affect people living locally but everyone visiting the area or travelling through it and will often have a big impact on the national economy.
Scottish councils have very little to do with the UK Government and the only time you might hear the two in the same sentence is if, perhaps, a council has applied for a grant from the UK Government for a local project.
How do I know which council area I live in?
Some of you might still be confused as to which of the 32 local authority areas you actually live in, especially if you live in the central belt where it’s pretty crowded and many people live right on borderlines.
The easiest way to find out is to go to https://www.gov.uk/find-local-council and type in your postcode.
But you also should spot signs of what council area you live in on your bins, street signs around your area or signs at nearby schools if you’re not sure.
