Just as Westminster ‘devolves’ certain powers to the Scottish Parliament, so The Scottish Parliament ‘devolves’ certain of these powers to Local Councils These councils are elected locally Therefore they know the needs of their own area Services are split into mandatory, permissible and discretionary.

These services are services that the council must provide Education Police Fire Services Social Work Sanitation etc

These services are services that do not have to be provided by law but councils usually provide them Leisure Centres Libraries

Local councils may choose to allocate funds to particular projects. Eg. Flood prevention in Perth. Glasgow’s Commonwealth Games 2014

Local Government in Scotland is organised on a unitary basis This means that each council is responsible for providing all services Scotland now has 29 councils on the mainland and three island authorities Our authority in Glasgow is Glasgow City Council

The Chief Executive is in overall charge of the Council. A Director is in charge of each department. The departments tend to mirror the main services provided by the council – eg. Director of Education. The main policy decisions are normally made by the departments and Councillors endorse them at their meetings. Glasgow City Council comprises 79 elected Members, representing 21 multi-member wards of 3 or 4 members