An MSP has said Highland Council is “monstrous” in size and “serving nobody well”.
The comments were made by SNP Highlands and Islands representative Emma Roddick a former Inverness councillor.
She is campaigning for a new city council to be formed for Inverness, the Highland capital.
Highland Council covers a third of Scotland’s landmass and 11.4% of Great Britain, with it being 20% larger than Wales and nearly the size of Belgium.
In spite of its geographical size, it is home to a total of only 235,540 people, the lowest per square mile in Scotland.
On the other hand, Inverness is one of Europe’s fastest growing cities, with around a quarter of the Highland population living in or around it.
The council ‘will always struggle’
Ms Roddick thinks that in its current form the council “will always struggle with competing priorities”.
She said: “Whatever is devolved to area committees, the council itself is still tasked with making high-level policy for both rural areas suffering depopulation and lack of services, and Inverness, often claimed to be the fastest growing city in Europe.
“Inverness projects are quickly scrapped or watered-down to allow councillors elsewhere to claim they’ve clawed back money.
“But it isn’t true – Inverness does not get everything and what we have is a city with a fast-growing population but very poor representation and lack of tailored vision.
“We could do a lot more with a city council that can unapologetically invest in and plan for the growth of the Highland capital. Equally, other areas in the Highlands could focus on their own patch and not worry about what Inverness wants, doesn’t want, or is or isn’t getting.”
As well as the establishment of an Inverness City Council, Ms Roddick also wants the whole of the Highland Council area to be reformed.
Too far apart
She said: “I think a city and rest of Highlands setup would be just as indefensible as the current one. Nairn and Wick (117 miles apart) don’t belong in a local authority together.”
In the battle to become the new leader of the SNP and first minister, two of the candidates – Kate Forbes and Ash Regan – have backed abolishing Highland Council, while Humza Yousaf has called for government policies to be “rural-proofed”.
Allan Faulds, the founder of Ballot Box Scotland – a polling and election website – is the author of the New Municipalism Project, in which he presents his ideas for an alternative local government structure in Scotland.
His findings show that the average population for each of Scotland’s 32 councils is 169,500, which is in stark contract to European countries with a similar population.
The average population per municipality in Slovakia is 1,857, 14,775 in Norway and 58,878 in Denmark, while with a population of 2.795 million, Lithuania has 60 councils.
His recommendations would see Scotland move to 128 municipalities across 10 regions, as well as five unitary authorities.
He said: “Sticking Inverness, Fort William, Portree, Ullapool and Wick in the same council and calling that local is obviously daft. Councils in Scotland are much too big in general, but Highland is where it is most obviously absurd.
“It’s not just the geographic extent either, it’s the fact that as a rapidly growing city, Inverness will have a very different character and needs to rural Sutherland or to medium-sized towns in Caithness.”
Needs based
He said: “There’s already an NHS Highland, yet unlike some European countries, there’s no sub-national democratic oversight of health delivery, so a regional council is actually an opportunity to fix that slight gap.
“On the other hand, there’s no reason for decisions on local housing, schools or leisure to be made at such a high level, so the return to two tiers would make sense.”
He continued: “Smaller councils would be more able to focus on the specific and unique needs of their areas, rather than having to look to Inverness.
“It would also be likely to bolster both the democratic credentials of the council if people feel it was more representative of their area and democratic access, as folk might be more willing to stand for election to a smaller council that would involve less travel.”
Responding to concerns about the size of Highland Council, a Scottish Government spokesman said: “Other councils face similar challenges, but we are not aware of any call by councils generally to change their areas at this time.”
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