Tuesday October 27th 2026
West Lothian Civic Centre
Written by Local Democracy Reporter, Stuart Sommerville
Local government reform snubs community councils and is an insult to the work of volunteers, a national group has claimed.
West Lothian’s community councils will debate their response to proposed local government reform next week.
The meeting of the Joint Forum comes ahead of a national conference of community councils that is expected to reject tabled proposals which would create nine regional authorities in a two tier system.
Having called for greater localised decision making many in the community councils movement feel their voices have been lost.
Donald Stavert from West Lothian’s Joint Forum of Community Councils told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS): “West Lothian Community Councils are meeting before the Scottish Conference, on Friday 6 November in the West Lothian Council Chambers to discuss our views on these proposals.
“We were expecting some legislative change from the Government this term but not the scrapping of all existing councils including West Lothian. We were expecting a move to give communities a bigger say which seems to have been lost”.
Announcing the national conference on 9 November a spokesperson for the Scottish Forum of Community Councils said: “For years, thousands of community council volunteers participated in good faith in the Democracy Matters consultation. The overwhelming consensus from across Scotland was clear, decision-making power should be devolved directly to local communities. That process culminated in the pre-election report, Democracy Matters – A Route to Reform.
“Yet, the post-election proposals tell a very different story. Rather than empowering communities, the government now proposes centralising power into just 6 to 10 regional councils, dismantling Scotland’s 32 local authorities and completely omitting community councils from the vision entirely.”
The spokesperson added: “To ignore an institution that has served local democracy for over 50 years is a clear insult to local community council volunteers across the country.”
Democracy Matters, billed as “a major national conversation and public engagement initiative” on how local government operates, has been running since before the Covid pandemic.
Core findings were produced by the Democracy Matters Steering Group after the second phase of the consultation- in 2024. The steering group was chaired by a Scottish Government minister Ivan McKee and councillor Steven Heddle, the vice president of the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (CoSLA).
These core findings were identified as:
– Flexible Decision-Making: Communities want structures tailored to local needs rather than a single, rigid “one-size-fits-all” governance model.
– Sustainable Budgets: Proposals emphasize independent or direct local/national funding streams and avoiding unresourced responsibilities downloaded onto communities.
– Representation & Inclusion: Emphasis on transparent accountability, accessible participation formats, and reaching groups with protected characteristics.
The Scottish Government first announced details of the proposed changes last month as it launched a three month consultation exercise with local authorities and unions.
Other reforms planned include the reform of NHS oversight and management in Scotland.
Further details are expected following the Scottish budget in early December.
The Scottish Forum of Community Councils is hosting a nationwide online conference on Monday, 9 November 2026 at 7pm.
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