This last weekend I wrote congratulating friends here on their re-election as councillors. And commiserating with one strong candidate who did not get elected. It is good that such people are prepared to put their names forward for election at local government level.

But I could not help wondering just how local is our “local” government. As the pre-election leaflets arrived it seemed that the local agenda was being hijacked by national considerations and that the results last Friday were being eagerly awaited and interpreted as indicators of attitudes towards party political interests and Scotland’s future constitutional status.

The neglect of local government is not just recent, though it has reached an extreme form over the last few years. It has been there over many years and is a responsibility shared between the main political parties since the 1980s. A plague on all their houses for failing to grasp that vibrant, responsive, independent minded, far sighted, properly funded and skilled local government is essential in the governance of a modern state.

Instead of seeing local government as an equal partner in government we have experienced the worst aspects over-centralised, over-bearing national administrations. The United Kingdom has a highly centralised system of government and we now, in the name of decentralisation and devolution, appear to have our own authoritarian version here at Holyrood. The energy and initiative which should reside locally has been sucked into the centre. As a consequence local government has been disempowered and there is the realisation locally that decisions affecting our communities are being taken elsewhere.

Readers' Letters: Local government simply isn’t local enough