Scottish councils want a rethink on reform plans – is there a way forward?

Cosla says this should not just be a conversation about the structure of local government, but the outcomes it provides for communities.

Their proposals on governance arrangements look quite different to the Scottish government one, though.

Cosla said plans should start with the 32 existing councils, building in better “regional collaboration and shared capacity”.

They said that would involve services being joined up across wider areas “without automatically assuming a new regional authority is needed”.

There could be “voluntary consolidation of councils” where that is supported locally, but only “subject to democratic agreement”.

Cosla also said it was “unclear what the proposal for 130+ community authorities will add”.

They are instead pushing for a “whole-system” review of where powers lie – right across Holyrood, the NHS, national agencies and public bodies as well as councils – to get them as close to communities as possible.

That part is not a million miles away from John Swinney’s vision, which involves cutting the number of health boards on the mainland to two and merging a clutch of public sector bodies and agencies.

But it underlines the scale of the task involved – it is nothing less than a total rewiring of how Scotland is run.