IT SEEMS to me that we talk about Scotland’s councils quite a lot but don’t talk about the stuff that matters: how council money works, the powers they have, don’t have, or should have, and most important of all, their relationship with the SNP, which is probably the key to understanding what’s really going on here.

So let’s have a stab shall we? The deputy First Minister John Swinney said in announcing the Scottish Budget last week that he’d given councils £540m more than the settlement they were expecting. But the Institute for Fiscal Studies said the cash would be swallowed up by existing pay awards, meaning budgets would still fall by 5% or more. Councils are already starting to talk about the jobs that will have to go next year to compensate.

This is obviously grim stuff, largely because we know already the effect tightening council budgets are having on local communities. I recently spent some time in the north of Glasgow speaking to people in Springburn Park and when I asked about the neglect I could see all around the place, they pointed their fingers at the council. They also felt that deprived communities such as theirs were being made to feel the effects of falling budgets the hardest. One man put it bluntly: “This may be a rough area but you shouldn’t treat people like s***.”

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I must say: I came away from the park that day pretty dispirited and angry about what the people who use and love it have had to put up with. Over the years, they’ve lost one thing after another: the putting green, football pitch, bandstand, formal gardens, greenhouse, public toilets, and permanent staff, and the latest to go is the bowling green and clubhouse, which were shut down at the start of the pandemic “due to Covid” never to reopen.

Obviously, I asked the city council for their take on the situation and they told me it was true, as people in Springburn suspected, that they spend more money removing litter in posh parks like Kelvingrove than they do in Springburn. However, the council said they do it because parks like Kelvingrove have greater footfall. They also said investment was being made in parks across the city through area partnerships and that the criteria they use mean a relatively greater proportion of the budget goes towards areas of deprivation.

This is all fair enough as far as it goes, but it’s what isn’t being said that matters, mainly the fact that however the money is spent, it clearly isn’t enough. Glasgow Council also made no mention of the fact that their income has been squeezed and squeezed over the years by the Scottish Government and you don’t need me to point out that the council is SNP and the Scottish Government is SNP and so the lack of criticism is not a coincidence.

But are we seeing signs perhaps that the Kraken is stirring? The City Treasurer Ricky Bell (SNP) said Glasgow Council was facing a deficit of £120m and the big question was what John Swinney was going to do about it. The president of the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities, Shona Morrison (SNP), also said the Scottish Government was failing to prioritise the essential services councils provide. This is yellow-on-yellow artillery fire, so it is not insignificant.

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But it would help if Glasgow Council could do more of this kind of thing and talked more honestly about how they’ve been treated by the Scottish Government. Not only have their budgets been cut – and around 80% of council incomes come from the central grant – the Government has also increasingly ring-fenced the money it does hand out, meaning that councils effectively have less to spend on their priorities. In other words, they have less and less power as well as less and less money.

As the biggest and bolshiest of all the councils, Glasgow should be saying much more on this and perhaps the Scottish Budget will be the nudge they need. In their defence, whether they’re saying it or not, Glasgow is part of an unreformed, unresponsive system that isn’t working for councils and certainly isn’t working for the people who’ve watched Springburn Park slide into neglect. We’ve got systemic problems that need fixed fast.

The first of them is a process that throws up a central government and a large city council that belong to the same party and are therefore unlikely to criticise each other when necessary. It happened for decades under Labour and now it’s happening again under the SNP. Glasgow, and every other council for that matter, needs someone who has significant powers and is going to shout at the government when necessary and challenge the foremost of Scotland’s political problems: an overbearing centre. Perhaps only elected mayors are the answer.

The financing of our councils also needs fixed once and for all to prevent the Scottish Government effectively reducing council autonomy and passing on a disproportionate level of cuts and the best solution would be a Barnett Formula for councils. Every time the Scottish Government got a budget boost, it would have to pass on a certain proportion to local authorities no-strings-attached. Imagine a Tory UK Government telling the Scottish Government they can have their Barnett consequentials but only if they spend the money on Tory priorities. There would be uproar and yet that is what the Scottish Government is doing to councils.

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Making all of this happen would require some pretty profound reform of local government but it’s also going to require a bit of political courage from the councils that are run by the SNP. I’m trying to defend Glasgow Council here – the system they’re forced to work in doesn’t help and, rather like Springburn Park, they’ve been the victims of years of under-funding and neglect. The hope must be that the Scottish Budget – another cut, another attack – will be a sort of awakening for them.

Reformed and properly funded, the hope must also be that communities like Springburn would ultimately be the ones to benefit. The council told me the investment they make in parks prioritises areas of deprivation. However, if the Scottish Government was forced to pass on all the money it should and if Glasgow had a champion who was willing to criticise the government when it needed to, maybe we would see the improvement we need.

The Scottish Budget was another grim reminder of the financial crisis in Scotland’s councils. But I also hope it can be the beginning of a realisation that this is about more than money: it’s about fixing our system for the future.