The chief executive of COSLA has urged Scotland's councils to consider radical options for change, including complete mergers with neighbouring authorities.

 As the country's councils wrestle with the threat of their number being cut by as much as 50%, ~Rory Mair~ ordered councils to come up with voluntary ways to change which would avert ministers from imposing a model for restructuring. Speaking at the annual conference of the umbrella organisation for Scottish local government in St Andrews, Mr Mair said: ‘There is no need for the imposition of a top-down set of changes across the country, as we will voluntarily develop changes on a rolling basis which reflect the needs and circumstances of individual council areas.'