Is there anybody who believes that councils in Scotland don't need more money?

You only have to be a person in need of social care or who used to enjoy public libraries or be a motorist old enough to remember when the roads didn’t regularly give you punctures or just to look around you at the state of the public realm, to realise that things used to be better than they are now in our local communities.

Of course, priorities change which might direct expenditure in different ways from the past and of course there are always ways to improve efficiency of delivery but the basic and obvious truth is that our local public services are grossly underfunded.

Local authorities' reserves have been stripped away. The easy cuts have all been done. The cuts made now are deep into bone. Councils desperately try to balance the books by selling assets or gouging motorists with absurd parking charges, charges for collecting garden waste and anything else they can. They have no choice, it is not their fault. The numbers simply do not add up.

The Scottish Government, whilst blaming everything on Westminster when in fact most of its difficulties are homemade, exerts an iron grip on Scottish councils. The Government in Edinburgh........

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