Neil was elected as a Local Councillor in 2007 to represent the Stirling West ward on Stirling District Council. Neil was also candidate for the Scottish Parliament in the Stirling Constituency in 2011. Read more from this author

In a move that will surprise no-one the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities has accepted the Scottish Government’s budget deal. The increasingly shrill noises from Glasgow City Council continue to act as an unsurprising counterpoint to the annual budget round. They have intimated that they are unhappy with the deal for Glasgow, citing the money being plunged into the Edinburgh tram project as evidence of this.

Now the new budget deal does reintroduce an element of ring fencing for SNP government priorities, it also continues the teacher jobs and police numbers pledges. The big ask is the spending cuts implicit in the continued council tax freeze.

I for one support the council tax freeze and still think that, especially in Stirling, council tax is still too high. The problem is that I don’t like having a gun pointed at my head and made to do something, even when it’s what I would have done anyway. The fact that the Scottish Government has cottoned on to this novel way of forcing councils to do their bidding means that we will have to get used to it.

So what about local democracy – is it the right of Glaswegians to elect Councillors who will tax them more? The simple answer to this is yes.

I would like to see an exit strategy for the current funding strategy. At present the Scottish Government offer extra funds to councils if they continue to freeze council tax (and protect police numbers, teacher jobs, the change funds). The government should reduce this funding over time with a clear date at which councils will no longer be reliant on government for their tax freezes. This will give people a choice to elect councillors who will run their councils efficiently or councillors who will raise taxes.

I find the current system quite ingenious from a public policy point of view – coercing councils through withholding extra funding unless they do the government’s bidding is a way of maintaining an illusion of localism while ruthlessly centralising power. We’ll all have to play “Hail to the chief” whenever Alex Salmond walks into a council building, but we’ll be doing it because we are addicted to the extra funding he doles out. No doubt when the time comes I’ll be meekly voting with the rest of the sheep because our council is too inefficient to do without the subsidy, we’re to frightened of the unions and organised interest within the council area.

Now a council that turns down the extra money and continues to hold the council tax – that would be a interesting proposition.