Council sizes
My mum was reading East Renfrewshire‘s magazine last night and asked me why there were so few council members.
I hadn’t really thought of that before, so I checked the figures: East Renfrewshire has 89,200 inhabitants and 20 council members, whereas an equivalent Danish council area (“kommune”) such as Silkeborg has 88,481 inhabitants and 31 council members.
Why is there such a big difference? Have Danish councils got more tasks than Scottish ones? Are Scottish councillors busier than their Danish counterparts?
My mum also remarked that East Renfrewshire’s councillors looked remarkably old to her – is there a connexion (e.g., is there a higher workload so that it’s hard to fit in if you’re not a pensioner?), or have their ages got more to do with the fact that FPTP was used until recently?