Redrawing the boundaries
Did you peruse The Herald this morning? Intriguing front page headlined "Is it time to redraw the council map of Scotland?"
Given these troubled times, the short answer to that might well be: "No, next question."
That short answer would be predicated upon a wish to avoid disrupting local authorities at a time when they have been placed in the front line of deploying public spending to counter the downturn/recession.
Redrawing the council map would be a huge task. Let nobody think differently. There would be endless argument, local inquiries, the lot.
Do we really want our local politicians distracted when they should be focused on mitigating economic decline?
To be fair, the Herald is alert to alternatives - such as sharing back office functions.
Does Scotland, they ask, really need 32 Directors of Education (and Social Work and....) plus their attendant staff numbers?
Pooled efforts
Good question. However, if we are to have this debate, then perhaps we need to start with a more fundamental inquiry still.
What is the purpose of local government? Is it to act as a delivery mechanism for central government objectives and targets?
If so, then efficiency would suggest that there should be savings to be made in that the individual directors will have little real discretion.
They could comfortably pool their efforts.
Herewith a snag, though. To whom would these shared directors be accountable? To their "own" council - which has farmed them out to neighbouring authorities?
To the various councils collectively which employ their services? What if those councils pursue different policies - and are of different political colours?
Perhaps, then, to the central administration - in that the bulk of the funding comes from that source?
Democratic mandate
It has long struck me that the key decision-making function of local authorities - as opposed to administrative functions - is planning.
That is where the democratic mandate rests. Do we, the citizens of Anytown, want more industrial development - or do we want green belt?
Do we, those same citizens, broadly favour social housing or upmarket estates?
How is that mandate exercised? Through local councils? Through larger authorities, still single tier but straddling a region?
If through those larger councils, then would you need genuine area decision making? Maybe the genuine questions are not about the map - but about the remit.
I'm 
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