Tuesday 9 February 2016 was a black day for local democracy in Scotland.

It was the day council leaders across the country were forced to sign next year’s local government financial settlement: a £350m cut and a continuation of the council tax freeze.

Many councils are deeply unhappy with what they see as draconian sanctions in the deal if they do raise taxes to offset funding cuts. These sanctions would see them lose their share of a total £408m in funding. The final recourse open to them is a judicial review, and a meeting has been scheduled on 18 February for councils that may wish to pursue this route.

The irony of Holyrood MPs arguing for powers from Westminster while ​undermining councils in Scotland has not been lost

My own council, Inverclyde, has taken the unprecedented decision to delay setting our budget until March, as there are a number of issues in the Scottish government’s offer that need clarification. This will also give us extra time to look at ways of mitigating the worst impacts of the cuts – which would otherwise lead to the loss of school support staff, environmental and regeneration services, and community wardens.

Relations between the Scottish government and local government are at an all-time low. When even Rory Mair, the respected retiring chief executive of Cosla, which represents Scottish local government, attacks the government’s hardline stance you know things are bad.

This is a far cry from the heady days of 2007 when the newly elected minority SNP administration was keen to establish a relationship with local government based on mutual respect and partnership. Over the past nine years this relationship has changed, particularly following the election of a majority SNP government in 2011.

Police and fire services, previously under local government control, have been centralised. Joint boards for health and social care services have been established – weakening direct political control of council social work services.

The largest council service, education, has become the key political battleground at Holyrood with the SNP government responding to criticism of falling teacher numbers and the growing attainment gap between rich and poor by taking greater central control.

And of course we are now in the eighth year of the council tax freeze, with councils’ only significant means of generating additional income having been effectively abolished.

The irony of Holyrood politicians arguing for the devolution of greater powers from Westminster while at the same time undermining local government in Scotland has not been lost on council leaders.

Back in mid-December, when the draft local government settlement was announced by the finance secretary, John Swinney, councils had been expecting a cut. The scale of the cut, at £350m, came as a nasty shock. The conditions attached – including a freeze in council tax for the ninth successive year, maintaining teacher numbers and a job for all newly qualified teachers – were what we had expected.

The backlash against that £350m cut undoubtedly took the government by surprise. A number of councils threatened to break the council tax freeze but Swinney and first minister Nicola Sturgeon were having none of it.

In late January they issued a revised offer to council leaders – one that could not be refused. If councils broke the council tax freeze not only would they lose their share of the notional £70m intended to replace additional council tax funds, they would also not receive their share of the £250m available for health and social care integration and £88m for teacher support: a total sanctions package of £408m.

Swinney set a deadline of 9 February for council leaders to sign up to this new offer. Failure to respond by this date would be deemed a rejection.

It is fair to say the hostile reaction from local government was unprecedented. Cosla council leaders voted 21–7 to reject the package, with only SNP-led councils voting in favour. David O’Neill, president of Cosla, called the government’s actions “outrageous” and “an attack on our democratic mandate”.

It seems in the new Scotland the only democratic mandate that matters is the SNP government’s.

I am looking at using reserves to protect jobs and frontline services for the next two years. After that it is likely an incoming SNP administration will need to make significant cuts to balance the books. Unless, of course, the SNP government at Holyrood finally uses the tax powers at its disposal to reclaim its mantle as Scotland’s anti-austerity party.

This article was amended on 12 February 2016 to correct the figure in the second paragraph and the date of the election of a majority SNP government.

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