WHEN it comes to its local government, is Scotland a European nation – or a British one?

Imagine you were given the task of designing a country from scratch. The key steps are clear: agree your borders. Design a flag. Compose an anthem. Write a constitution. But what about local government? What rights would you give to communities to make decisions about the things that affect them?

In Scotland, we have – like other countries – our own distinctive way of organising these matters. But the last five decades have left our local authorities in an unenviable state.

Our modern system of local government began in the 12th century, when royal burghs were first established. Towns were given legal rights and trading privileges by royal charter. The burghs survived hundreds of years. Their rights were preserved in the 1707 Act of Union. Reforms in the 19th and 20th centuries required every burgh to have an elected council and gave burghs the powers to oversee “paving, lighting, cleansing, watching, supplying with water and improving their communities.”

In 1975, all Scottish burghs were abolished. They were replaced with a two-tier system of regional and district councils (except the island authorities). This system was itself replaced in the 1990s by the 32 single-tier authorities we know today.

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Meanwhile, Scottish councils saw their powers diminished. Public housing provision. Economic development. Further education. Tourism promotion. Water and sewage. Environmental protection. Both policing and fire and rescue became less accountable to local government.

On top of this, the power of local authorities to raise the income required to deliver what services remained to them was also eroded.

The grinding down of Scottish local government over the past five decades is a sorry tale. This deliberate centralisation of power – whether at Westminster, Holyrood or through national bodies – has had devastating impacts on Scottish civic society.

Scotland deserves a system of local government that it can be proud of. People should want to stand as councillors, taking decisions that have far-reaching impacts on their communities. Local government is fundamentally the business of communities governing themselves. It is protecting the rights of communities to exercise their democratic functions that is the concern of the European Charter of Local Self-Government.

The charter is a landmark international treaty created by the Council of Europe, founded in 1949 to uphold human rights, democracy and the rule of law in Europe. We may have left the European Union, but we have not left the Council of Europe. The charter lays down standards for protecting the rights of local authorities. Although many Council of Europe members promptly signed upon the launch of the treaty in 1985, it took the UK 12 years to sign and then ratify the charter.

For the UK, ensuring that international law is part of the domestic legal system does not end with the ratification of a treaty. It must also incorporate international treaties into its domestic legislation. The Human Rights Act famously does this for the rights contained in the European Convention on Human Rights, ensuring that citizens can rely upon those Convention Rights in the courts of the UK.

That is why I have introduced my member’s bill, the European Charter of Local Self-Government (Incorporation) (Scotland) Bill, into the Scottish Parliament. It incorporates the rights enshrined in the Charter of Local Self-Government into Scots law.

The Heat Networks Bill has also begun its journey through Parliament. So far, this bill represents yet another missed opportunity to transform the way in which our country functions.

It promotes the use of heat networks, a method of heating buildings that uses insulated pipes to transport heat. Making our heating systems more efficient and climate-friendly is a key part of addressing the climate crisis.

But the bill places the power over heat networks firmly in the hands of Scottish ministers.

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There is no good reason for this. In Denmark, the pipes that form heat networks are owned mainly by municipalities – local authorities. In Finland, 96% of heat network schemes are owned by local authorities. Dutch municipalities are expected to take the lead in planning heat networks. Here, although local authorities have led the way in scoping and developing heat network projects, the legislation is agnostic on the subject of public ownership.

Heat networks, water supply, energy – in Scotland we have lost sight of the notion that local authorities can provide public utilities, even where it remains commonplace in other European countries.

Local government is the layer of government closest to a country’s citizens. Its rights must be protected. Incorporating the European Charter of Local Self-Government is the first step on a journey towards a system of Scottish local government we can be proud of.

In the years ahead, we should ask ourselves whether Scotland wants to be a British nation – with a centralised, underpowered, underfunded system of governance – or a European one.