Local Councils
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Cathkin High School Social Subjects’ Department S3 Modern Studies LOCAL COUNCILS 1 1. What are councils and how are they formed? In this lesson you will learn: What councils are The structure of the Scottish council system How council governments are formed and the results of the 2012 Scottish local council elections. Scotland has 32 councils. Your class will hold a ballot and you are going to be drawn one of these councils. Your homework task for next week is to find out some information about your chosen council. You may wish to find out about: Famous people from that council area Landmarks within the council Buildings of interest Anything else your council is known for! Note this information in your jotter, as you will need it for a class task where you will re-design your council’s logo. “Councils are not that important.” Write down whether you agree or disagree with the above statement. Give yourself a score of between 1 and 10 depending on how strongly you support your opinion, 1 being not very much, 10 being extremely strongly. For example, if you strongly agree with the statement, you would write: Agree, 10. If you strongly disagree with the statement, you would write: Diasagree, 10. We will return to this question when we have completed the unit to see if your opinion of councils has changed! Before we begin, tell us what you already know about councils. Include any relevant information at all; what you think they are, what you think they do, your own personal experience with anything council-related, anything! For example, how many members of the class are able to name one of their councillors? Councils What are Councils? 2 Councils are local government. Councils are sometimes called local authorities. The UK Parliament may take Britain to war with Iraq, and the Scottish Government may introduce a new curriculum for Scottish schools, but they do not make decisions for local matters, as they do not really know what is going on and what is needing done at the very local level. The Prime Minister is not the best placed person to know that your street needs a broken lamppost replaced, or that your local library needs a new computer. Councils are. Councils are run by groups of people (councillors) who are elected by local people and who make decisions that they feel will help the local area. Scotland has 32 local councils. There are over 1,000 elected councillors across Scotland. The number of councillors in each council area varies and council areas range in size from Glasgow City Council, which has a population of 600,000 and represented by 79 councillors, to the Orkney Islands Council with a population of 20,000 people, and represented by just 21 councillors. Big or small, councils across Scotland are all responsible for managing their budgets and delivering a wide range of vital public services including housing, school education and community learning and development, and library services, social work services, roads and waste management. 3 Some council logos are shown above. Your homework task from last week was to find out information about the council you had drawn in the ballot. You will now need to have that information in front of you as your task is to design a new logo for that council. It should include the name of the council, it should feel welcoming and inclusive, it may include a positive slogan or picture, and it should be colourful! You must include some of the information you have found out about your council in the new logo design. How are council governments formed? 4 We vote for our councillors on a separate election day from UK Parliament or Scottish Parliament elections. The most recent elections to UK councils were in May 2012 and the next will be in 2017. For both Scottish Parliament and UK Parliament elections we are split into constituencies. The same happens in council elections, except our constituencies are much smaller and are called wards. Wards are small areas within councils. For instance, the council you live and go to school in is South Lanarkshire. South Lanarkshire council is one of the largest councils in Scotland. It has 16,000 employees. South Lanarkshire It includes areas such as Lanark, Strathaven, Carluke, Uddingston, Rutherglen, Cambuslang and East Kilbride. There are 20 wards within South Lanarkshire, and each one elects 3 or 4 councillors. In total, South Lanarkshire council elects 67 councillors. You may recognise the South Lanarkshire ward you live in: 5 How are councils formed? Scottish council elections use a complex voting system known as Single Transferable Vote (STV) where voters number their preferences rather than simply putting an X next to their 1 favoured candidate. This system often results in wards electing councillors from different parties. Following a council election there are 3 possibilities of how that council will be governed: 1. If any single party has a majority of councillors, they can control that council and make decisions for it. For instance, Glasgow has a majority of Labour councillors, so Labour can control Glasgow. 2. If no single party has a majority, they may choose to enter a coalition government (when 2 or more parties join up to form a majority). For instance, Edinburgh is controlled by a coalition of Labour and the SNP. Of the 32 Scottish councils, 16 of them are controlled by coalitions. 3. If the leading party does not have a majority but is close to it they may try to make decisions with a minority, although they may find it difficult to reach decisions as they may not have enough councillors. For instance, of the 67 seats available in South Lanarkshire council, Labour won 33 of them. Although they do not have a majority, they are only one seat short of it and so have decided not to enter a coalition but instead to try and govern as a minority. Discuss as a class the advantages and disadvantages of each possibility, then fill in the following table: Advantages Disadvantages Majority Coalition Minority 6 Many members of the class will probably be part of either Ward 13 Cambuslang West or Ward 14 Cambuslang East. If you are, these are your councillors: Ward 13 - Cambuslang West Russell Clearie (Labour) Clare McColl (SNP) Richard Tullett (Labour) Ward 14 - Cambuslang East Walter Brogan (Labour) Pam Clearie (Labour) Christine Deanie (SNP) You can search all South Lanarkshire councillors here: Homework: Find out your ward: http://www.lgbc- scotland.gov.uk/databaselgbc/lgbcs_mapfinder.asp Homework: Find out your ward’s councillors and take a note of when they hold surgeries: http://www.southlanarkshire.gov.uk/councillors/ward The youngest councillor in Scotland is 19; Alex MacLeod, SNP Councillor for the Highlands (pictured). Complete the councillor decision-making task on page 8. 7 There are 2Insert candidates councillor wishing decision to be elected-making to taskthis council. page 21 Read the information on the council, and the information about the 2 candidates, then answer the questions which follow. Council information: There are 3 high schools in the ward, each with enough resources for around 1000 pupils but as more and more pupils are coming up from the primary schools, the school roll of all 3 high schools has grown to just over 1000 this year, but longer term school rolls are planned to fall. Obesity rates in the area are higher than the national average and there are lots of fast food takeaway shops leading to people having poor diets. The nearest leisure centre is 10 miles away, and transport links to it are poor. The local library has 10 computers and very rarely are all 10 being used at any one time. Youth crime rates in the area are high. Many young people say there is little for them to do, and some of them drink alcohol in the local park, leaving broken glass in the grass, and cause vandalism. The previous council built an art gallery within the ward, but so few people visit it that it is now in danger of closing down. Survey of public opinion Yes No Don’t know Do you think local roads are in urgent need of repair? 85% 10% 5% Are you satisfied with how regularly bins are emptied? 91% 3% 6% Do you think creating jobs in the area is a priority? 83% 9% 8% Candidate A: James Smith I will request the Scottish Government builds a new high school in the area to accommodate rising numbers of pupils. I will work to improve transport links so that people can reach the leisure centre 10 miles away. People believe road potholes are a big problem. I will find out on which particular roads these potholes are causing most problems and make it a priority to fix them. I will campaign for a youth club to be built in the area to give bored youths something do and get them off the streets. I feel an art gallery would attract people to the area and be of great interest to local people interested in culture. Candidate B: Mary Black A car company has asked the council for permission to set up a manufacturing plant within the area. If elected I will approve this plan, as it will create jobs, which people believe is of great importance. Too many people in the area lead unhealthy lifestyles and have nowhere to exercise. I will vote for a new leisure centre to be built within the ward to give local people opportunities to exercise. This will have the added benefit of bringing jobs to the area, which a majority of people have requested.