Picture: Daniel Forsyth. Image No.
MORAY has a “vast black hole” in its finances of between
£20 million and £28 million that will have to be closed within the next two years. That news came as Councillor Donald Gatt (Keith and Cullen, Conservative) said he feared the authority had “six months left before it is flat broke”. Cllr Gatt also said that restructuring how Moray worked with local authorities was a “must” to ensure a sustainable future. Speaking at a full council meeting last week, after looking at the council’s capital spend for the year so far, Cllr Gatt said: “I think there needs to be a lot more control of spending and I would urge the chief executive and the financial officer to look very carefully at this, because if we are to believe what is before us, Moray Council has six months left before it is flat broke.” Corporate director Rhona Gunn responded by saying that capital spend in every area was under review. The meeting followed the first of four confidential budget briefings, held a fortnight ago, by senior officers at Moray Council. It is understood that plans were outlined about
how savings were going to be made. With three further briefings scheduled, Tim Eagle, the leader of the Moray Tory group and Buckie councillor, spoke of a “vast black hole” of between £20 million and £28 million. He said: “If you thought last year was bad this year threatens to be much worse. “Moray Council has saved millions of pounds over the past few years. While the Conservative group wants to ensure the council is as efficient as possible, these latest
proposals have the potential to significantly impact the lives of people throughout the area.” He called on the Scottish Government to help bail them out. He said: “It is incredible, the Scottish Government is £500 million underspent this year and £1.2 billion underspent over the past four years. “We need a tiny percentage of that to maintain good quality service levels and build for the future. “What we have is services under huge pressure with staff working so hard just to keep
on top of things. Good ideas and fresh ways of doing things are being pushed back to make way for day-to-day troubleshooting and our playparks, schools, community hospitals and towns are bearing the brunt of this. “It is important we are an efficient council but not one crippled by poor financial settlements. “I call upon the Scottish Government to ensure that local authorities are fairly funded so we can stop with the cuts and move forward to
a new phase of rebuilding and engaging our communities for the future.” Responsibility for running Moray Council was taken up by a minority SNP administration in June following the withdrawal from the ruling administration of the Tories’ eight councillors in May. The Tories had been working in partnership with four Independent councillors to form the administration. The upshot of the withdrawal was that nobody was left in overall charge of the council until the SNP group took over in June. New council leader Graham Leadbitter (Elgin South, SNP) stated that his administration had not had enough time yet in office to oversee the longterm measures he would like to implement. He said: “I agree the council can’t keep doing the same old thing. But there’s a real pressure of time to balance the budget for this coming February. I’m afraid that austerity budgeting is a policy of the UK government. Anyone who says otherwise is denying the facts.” Cllr Leadbitter said he had been involved in talks with representatives from Scotland’s 31 other councils to try persuade them to adjust the formula that determines how the money is distributed.