Pride in Place provokes democratic shame

What to do with an extra £20 million? This was a question the Council had hoped it would need to answer when the UK Government announced its Pride in Place funding.

- Ed Thornley

Edinburgh council's SNP leader Simita Kumar

It was not to be. What emerged was another government decree, where five parts of the city were placed in competition. The sole element of the council's input? Filling in a questionnaire so the government could pick their winner.

This is not local decision-making, but it is a pattern that councils have been forced to get used to.