Here in North Lanarkshire local government uses weed killer on community planting and a flailing machine on hedgerows with horrible consequences. Engagement with them is hopeless and breaks your heart.

I have come across that in the past on and off from university students as long as twenty years ago both in writing and speech. People mistakenly feel it can be used to mean ‘notably’. I hope school students are being helped with this.

Well done!

Not clear what the evidence is for this.

I don’t know why it’s so difficult to help people understand what LAs do/don’t do or local democracy generally, but I have tried and it’s an uphill task. Is it boring, gloomy or is it a deep alienation as people have accumulated many adverse experiences of failure and decline.