SPARE a thought for our twice-buried local elections this weekend, now just 12 days away. In theory, these were “decoupled” from national events five years ago, when they were given their own year, distinct from the Holyrood election. The idea being that, finally, after being overshadowed by their parliamentary big sister, the council vote would be judged in its own right, the electorate free to mull over a menu of local policies at length. Fat chance.

As the first decoupled local election fell a year after the SNP won its majority at Holyrood, the result was interpreted as a snap verdict on Alex Salmond’s plan to hold an independence referendum. The SNP’s flawed attempt to wrestle Glasgow City Council from Labour’s grasp took on an epic importance. Given the sheer size of the city’s population, the SNP needed to make headway there if it was ever going to win the vote of 2014. The road to the promised land runs through George Square, as we commentators were fond of saying at the time.

In the end, the SNP fumbled it and Labour kept its majority, but two years later Glasgow voted Yes and the referendum was won by the Unionist side regardless. Which just goes to show how elections can be over-interpreted and are, shall we say, of limited utility for telling the future. As to the substance of the election – how schools, roads, social care, housing and transport were going to fare for the coming years – well, that rather got lost in the mix.

Thank goodness 2017 was going to be different. Except, of course, it’s even worse this time. First, the local elections were buried by the constitution, after Nicola Sturgeon announced her plan to hold a second referendum on the back of the Brexit vote. At which point, May 4 became a proxy vote on her ambition to do so. The SNP’s council manifesto is one of the few not to mention independence. Labour, the LibDems and the Tories all have it on page one. That’s not a figure of speech, incidentally. It’s in the first page of text in all their manifestos.

Then, just as we were getting used to the council vote being crushed on that level, Theresa May called a General Election, and any hope of a verdict on local priorities was buried deeper. I’m not yet sure what May 4 has become yet. It seems a swirling slew of unrelated issues, a gurgling broth of Brexit, independence, Jeremy Corbyn’s farewell tour, Tory infighting and calculation, and protests against the SNP/the Tories and their rape clause. But none of it seems even tangentially related to who runs your council and empties the bins on time.

I think that’s a great pity. These elections, lost under layers of noisier political debate as they are, will really matter. The policies and priorities of the parties who will help educate our children and look after our most vulnerable citizens for five years obviously matter. The quality of the people entrusted with spending more than £10 billion of public money each year obviously matter. Their ability to deliver for communities and negotiate with government obviously matter. So this is something of an appeal. When the leaflets start choking the letterbox, don’t rush to the recycle bin. There are actually some interesting ideas in there. There are common threads on devolving greater power to local communities, giving citizens more say in how budgets are spent, housing and planning reform, public bus networks, superfast broadband as a universal utility, councils generating cheaper electricity for local houses, and encouraging business through smarter procurement and sourcing food from local suppliers. There are also staples such as education, social care, and, inevitably, potholes and rubbish collection. But also unexpected ideas, such as addressing mental ill health with more counselling in schools.

It’s not Brexit, it’s not independence, it’s not Jezza v Tezza. But it counts. Happy voting.