There are potholes all over Glasgow now - in many places we can see the city streets being stripped back to the Victorian cobblestones that they were built on.

But those are just the holes we can see.

As Stewart Paterson recently pointed out in the Glasgow Times, there are other gaping holes all over this city, and all over Scotland – dangerous gaps in our council services left because our councils are being denied the support they need.

READ NEXT:Glasgow cannot stomach any more cuts to council services

People in Glasgow believe in justice and compassion. They’ll go out of their way to help others.

But one individual can’t help everyone – so over the years we’ve turned our values into concrete action through our council services.

We would be lost without them. Our children’s life chances rely on the quality of our schools and childcare.

Many of our relatives and friends rely on the dedicated social care workers, who make sure they are safe, clean and fed. 

From providing a place for homeless people to at least have a roof over their heads, to dealing with our mountains of household waste, our councils are one of the institutions we have created to provide support and care for our fellow citizens.

We all rely on council services – but for people in poverty and on low incomes, they are a lifeline.

Across Scotland more than a million people are locked in poverty – including around 250,000 children.

This simply isn’t right, and we know that local government holds some of the keys that can help free people from the injustice of poverty in wealthy Scotland.

The Scottish Welfare Fund – administered by our councils – helps people when they are faced with destitution or when they need help to by basics like a washing machine.

READ NEXT:Change or face more cuts: Dire financial warning for councils

Sadly – in an economy that doesn’t provide secure, stable jobs for people, and with a social security system that simply doesn’t meet people’s needs – more and more of our fellow citizens are finding themselves in that situation.

Some councils can no longer promote the Scottish Welfare Fund, with the money running out as the fund quickly becomes oversubscribed.

We heard from women in our joint research with the Scottish Women’s Budget Group that community organisations were a lifeline, keeping them afloat as the cost of living continues to rise.

Our community organisations provide critical welfare and debt advice; offer meals to vulnerable people in their homes; and help people get equal access to employment. However, these organisations, such as the Glasgow Food Train, –, are having their council funding cut, or completely taken away.

We urgently need the Scottish Government to fill these holes. Our politicians at Holyrood can replace the regressive council tax with a fair system that brings in more money for community investment.

We can support councils who want to explore ways to use the wealth in our cities to invest in the future. We can use powers over income tax to make the central funding pot bigger.

It is critical that councils receive all the support they need to ensure that they can play a full role in delivering an inclusive local economy and reducing poverty.

Otherwise we risk finding that our community – like our streets – is stripped back to the Victorian era, with all the misery, destitution, and inequality that comes with it. Our politicians have a moral responsibility to make sure that doesn’t happen.

Ruth Boyle is Policy & Campaigns Manager at Poverty Alliance