Moray SNP Councillors get budget backing
Moray Council’s SNP Administration have had their budget proposals approved at a Special Meeting of the Council.
The budget included a reinstatement of grass cutting across the region and commitment to reviewing planned toilet closures in August to consider if a longer timescale for alternative service models including community ownership is needed.
In total the budget sets out over £210M of planned expenditure to deliver over 150 public services in Moray.
Welcoming the decision the Council’s SNP Leader Graham Leadbitter said:
“Today’s budget agreement comes after a huge amount of effort by council officers and their teams alongside councillors, working together to find the most sustainable way forward for the Council.
“I am grateful for the work put in by both my own group of councillors and councillors in other groups to find a way forward that could get the support of the Council.
“Including our housing and capital budgets, Moray Council will be investing over £300M in over 150 public services in the coming year from new schools to the expansion of Early Years provision, new housing, social care, lands and parks, roads, waste management, economic development and much, much more.
“The difficult decisions taken in previous years have put the Council in a much more sustainable position. That has enabled us to reinstate grass cutting back to 2018 levels in amenity areas and parks across Moray.
Conservative group leader Cllr Tim Eagle said: “I cannot welcome enough the reversal of the decision on grass cutting, it has been a long campaign to get this reviewed and this will be a welcome relief for our communities and allow us all to enjoy our outside spaces this summer. However I am disappointed that that there are no firm assurances around public toilets which will need to be debated again in August.
"Many of the studies the council has done identified the problem of in-work poverty in Moray where we have families who are above the benefits line but on low wages. These families will be disproportionally affected by rises in charges and council tax. We fought to protect them by keeping Council Tax down to just 3% but were defeated by the independents and SNP who insisted on a higher inflation-busting increase. We fear the outcome is unfair and could have negative knock-on effects on the local economy.