The Scottish Parliament is responsible for overseeing the following areas: Civil Registration, Census, Demography, Statistics, National archives, Planning permission, Local Government, Planning Controls, Housing, Homelessness and Building Standards, Charities.

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Before dealing with these specifics it is is important to understand our heart to restore civic administration back to accountability of the people hence the following policy:

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From the 17th. century Scotland until 1975 enjoyed real local government and cultural identity until the process of centralization began to undermine the individual cultures of our nation.

 

A Scottish Heritage Party Government will restore these identities with a local County Council Chamber full of elected local people determined to wave individual County flags with pride. All this will come with our de-centralization programme determined to suppress the move to global government at a national level by restoring the power back to the people under God.

 

As well as local County Councils we will restore the role of Provosts to the towns of Scotland with town councils reporting to the local County Council, town councils with precepts responsible for local spending and grant giving. Democracy therefore will return to our cities, towns and villages that with a Provost will have identity and purpose rather than continuing the suppression of regional councils and Holyrood.

 

Each County Council will run its own Police Force, roads maintenance programmes, refuse collections and be responsible for local transport policy as well as many of the roles Holyrood is today responsible for. Instead, therefore of a distanced centralized power in Edinburgh, we will replace this with localized decision-making council right at the heart of communities.

 

Representing the Monarch upholding the Constitutional acts of the nation will be a Lord Lieutenant or Sheriff enduring our heritage and culture is not destroyed by infiltrators of foreign ideologies. He or she would be based in the County Town ensuring the county is flourishing and accepting its individual role within the country. Boundaries will be clearly marked with street name signs clearly showing the county. Also, within the county building can be a tourism centre full of information relating to growing attractions within the area, with schools and colleges within the county teaching local history and geological features.

 

Coming out of the county building will be a local government expert team covering agriculture, forestry and fisheries, consumer advocacy and advice, economic development, education and training, elections, energy development, environmental issues, fire services, freedom of information, health and social services, housing, justice and policing, planning, sport and the arts, certain forms of local taxation and tourism.

 

Councils will be able to develop their counties with a heart and passion for their individual areas with business support teams going out and helping when invited, small, medium, and large businesses to develop with planning departments sympathetic to local people understanding that whilst global business has its place, it should not be at the expense of the small person. With this radical change in local approaches, we can witness our high streets back in the hands of local people reflecting local culture above that of the multi-nationals.

 

As regards to national and local taxation, the Scottish Heritage Party will review all options with a determination to make taxation fairer relating more to the ability to pay rather than outdated valuations.

 

This will also benefit business, for business can then decide the most cost-effective county to set up business in. In effect therefore, the Scottish Heritage Party in restoring the original county borders will be bringing prosperity to the people for they will be deciding their own destiny, they will be upholding their own individual culture, and they will be experiencing freedom rather than suppression from centralized bureaucrats.

 

In Scotland therefore the following counties will be restored so as to re-build Scotland as a nation within a nation with all the benefits of de-centralization, removing the “letter of the law” from government and replacing this by the heart and soul of the people.

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Caithness, Sutherland, Ross and Cromarty, Inverness-shire, Nairnshire, Moray
(Elginshire until 1918), Banffshire, Aberdeenshire, Kincardineshire, Angus
(Forfarshire until 1928), Perthshire, Argyll, Bute, Ayrshire, Renfrewshire, Dunbartonshire, Stirlingshire, Clackmannanshire, Kinross-shire, Fife, East Lothian (Haddingtonshire until 1921), Midlothian (Edinburghshire until 1890) West Lothian (Linlithgowshire until 1924), Lanarkshire, Peeblesshire, Selkirkshire, Berwickshire, Roxburghshire, Dumfriesshire, Kirkcudbrightshire, Wigtownshire. Zetland (Shetland), and Orkney.

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Under a Scottish Heritage Party government, we can look forward to a fair taxation system based both nationally and locally on profit rather than outdated valuations with the added benefit of having one national collection system that gives a proportion of its income to counties that are run by local people who decide their own destiny.

 

In addition, the business and charity support teams of local councils have the incentive of encouraging wealth creation with local business thriving rather than being suppressed by centralized government in a far-off place with no local accountability.

 

The Scottish Heritage Party believes that consultation is the backbone of representative democracy and that local councils should be responsive to citizens. We therefore endorse the Gunning principles which state that consultation is the backbone of representative democracy and that:

 

1) Stakeholders affected by decisions are provided with relevant information which must be available, accessible, and easily interpretable so stakeholders can make an informed response 

2) There is adequate time for consideration and response and there must be sufficient opportunity for consultees to participate in the consultation. 

3) ‘Conscientious consideration’ must be given to the consultation responses before a decision is made and decision-makers must be prepared to provide evidence that the consultation responses were genuinely considered and must provide the reasons for making their decision.

 

To summarise our position, we say it is time for the people in their own local environment to make decisions rather than be aggressively controlled by far off centralized powers that know little of local conditions. With a Scottish heritage Party Government we will see the end of centralized cultural marxism running our country.

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In the areas therefore of Civil Registration, Census, Demography, Statistics, National archives, Planning permission, Local Government, Planning Controls, Housing, Homelessness and Building Standards, Charities, these will be given to the restored County Councils democratically elected in sharp contrast to the present day system of centralized control from unelected officials.