Councillors in Scotland could be given new powers allowing them the right to scrutinise other public services, finance minister Tom McCabe has revealed. He told the annual conference of the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA) at St Andrews last week he was attracted by a proposal put forward for England by Sir Michael Lyons. Sir Michael has suggested councillors could be given power to scrutinise other public services on behalf of the community. ‘People have expressed a very strong desire for a stronger accountability link. They would like to see what they regard as a local advocate having the ability to comment on a wider range of local services than they currently do,' Mr McCabe said. He also believed there was a case for looking at the functions of quangos and considering the possibility of bringing these back within democratic control, either at ministerial or local government level. But he warned that if local authorities were given more powers there might have to be a ‘trade off' which could result in councils losing some of their responsibilities.‘There will be some things people might need to let go and there will be other things that people take on. ‘It's about getting the structures in the right place,' Mr McCabe said. The minister was asked whether this could result in councils losing major functions like education, a suggestion that was made recently by academics at Glasgow University. Mr McCabe said it would be wrong at this stage to ‘pick off' one area in isolation and ‘scare the horses' by giving the impression one particular function was being singled out.
