Scottish local authorities have hit out at the financial settlement offered by the Edinburgh government as unfair and undeliverable with big cuts in services and staffing.
COSLA president David O’Neill accused the Scottish government of attempting to subvert local democracy by forcing the deal on councils.
Speaking the day before the deadline imposed by the Scottish government for any council to reject the deal, Cllr O’Neill said the deal would slash council budgets by £350m.
It would cut budgets by 3.5% and force local authorities to freeze council tax for a ninth successive year.
He said: 'These are cuts that, collectively through COSLA, we have said that we are unwilling to inflict on our communities – but that from tomorrow will be forced upon individual councils.
'I will not rehearse or go over all the old arguments about outcomes being much better than inputs because that is a language that is difficult to make real.
'However, what I would say is that the Scottish Government should be endeavouring to empower local democracy not going out of their way to subvert it.'
