Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Moray Council boss braced for “fiery” budget meeting

Council Leader, Stewart Cree, inside Moray Council Chamber
Council Leader, Stewart Cree, inside Moray Council Chamber

The leader of Moray Council is bracing himself for “fiery” scenes when the authority sets its budget for the new financial year today.

Stewart Cree admitted that unpopular cuts would need to be pushed through to address the authority’s current financial problems.

The ruling administration has tabled measures which include slashing spending on roads maintenance and increasing council tax by 3%, to help collect £12million.

Mr Cree has been locked in negotiations with his colleagues this week, while the Independent and Tory-led group attempt to fine-tune their financial plan, in advance of the meeting.

Last night, the council boss confirmed that some slight changes had been made to the plan put forward last week.

But he maintained the administration’s package of “difficult” proposals were the only way to keep the authority from going bankrupt by the end of 2018.

And he blamed a lack of Scottish Government funding for forcing his group into cutting spending on areas they would rather preserve.

Mr Cree said: “This is not the budget we would want to put forward, as we have had to put so much focus on savings.

“Moray Council is one of the most under-funded authorities in Scotland, per head of population, and that makes some of our decisions a fait accompli as we can only think about where to cut.

“Without drastically changing our spending patterns, we will run out of money in September 2018, and that needs to be kept in mind.

“But, of course, it will be a fiery meeting, I expect it will be difficult.”

He added: “We have made some small changes, but nothing groundbreaking.

“The reasons for them will be explained during the meeting, and some will bring in additional funding.”

The administration also intends to employ more than £7million from reserves to fill the budget gap.

A spokesman for Moray Council’s SNP opposition group yesterday confirmed its members would stick by an alternative series of proposals put forward last week.

The spokesman added he also expected the summit to be “fiery”.

Nationalist councillors have suggested trimming £500,000 from the wages of senior staff to help save a further £1million.

The Scottish Government has argued local councils were “treated very fairly” in its budget earlier this month.