Most people have strong opinions about the kind of place they want to live in, usually accompanied by even stronger views about what a mess the local council is making of it.

In Edinburgh, the public’s opportunity to help mould the future shape of the city was due to close on Wednesday, with the end of the initial “call for ideas” consultation period as Edinburgh Council starts the work behind the next local development plan (LDP), City Plan 2040.

It’s hard to imagine there has been a stampede, so maybe the returns have been disappointing, because the deadline for submissions has been quietly put back to October 21. Not that Trafalgar Day has any significance, but Edinburgh Council has no choice but to turn Nelson’s Eye to the SNP’s threat to its existence with the publication of the Scottish Government’s wafer-thin consultation paper on local government reform.

Maybe it’s a dead cat to distract attention from where real reform is needed, but the proposal to break up current councils into smaller empowered community councils, with another layer of strategic regional councils above them, has had a mixed reception. But this week the Herald revealed it could cost £2 billion, so what is it supposed to achieve?

What’s not to like about better strategic planning? Something like the next local development plan for Edinburgh would logically fall to the regional authority if its remit was to make decisions which affect districts cutting across what we currently recognise as the city boundary. But for £2 billion?

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