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.

Warnings political shake-up of Moray Council could derail efforts to address damaging report

Moray Council leader Graham Leadbitter.
Moray Council leader Graham Leadbitter.

Warnings have been issued that a political takeover of Moray Council could derail efforts to drive improvements following a damning Accounts Commission report.

Auditors concluded the authority’s services had “significantly declined” over the last five years in a review published in August – raising specific concerns about education.

Yesterday councillors agreed an action plan to address issues raised ahead of a follow-up report due within 18 months.

The four-year blueprint includes efforts to “develop trust” between councillors and officers, further long-term financial planning and projects to increase the pace of “transformational change” with improvements to monitoring the performance of services.

Meanwhile, a potential overhaul of decision-making committees proposed by the opposition Conservative group to form a single executive cabinet, which they would lead, remains on the table.

Yesterday SNP members described the proposal as the “elephant in the room” during the Accounts Commission debate.

Political instability and a “lack of focus” among councillors were highlighted as reasons for the slow pace of change by auditors.

Council leader Graham Leadbitter, co-leader of the SNP group, said: “There’s a proposal out there from the Conservatives to completely change the governance structure of this council.

“It would tie up officers for weeks and weeks in the middle of a national emergency. I’m not entirely sure how they think that will move us forward and not slow things down.

“We’re willing to continue to have conversations with other groups to make progress, political leadership is absolutely critical.”

Tim Eagle, leader of the Conservatives, branded Mr Leadbitter’s comments as “slightly pathetic”.

Mr Eagle believes the proposed model, which is used elsewhere in Scotland, would streamline decision-making while bringing “clear leadership”.

Meanwhile, questions from the Tory group about the effectiveness of the managerial leadership of officers, including the chief executive, were closed down during the meeting amid concerns they may have breached the councillors’ code of conduct.

Elgin City North councillor Frank Brown.

Conservative Frank Brown said: “I’m disappointed that we can have a debate where the chief executive and his officers think it’s acceptable to criticise the way councillors have operated now and in the past, but we’re told it breaches the code of conduct to do it the other way.”

However, former council leader George Alexander, who leads a group of four independent members, urged caution while reading the Accounts Commision’s findings.

He said: “I don’t know how many times I read in it that Moray was performing ‘below average’. Half of councils will always be below average, it doesn’t necessarily mean they’re performing badly.”