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Moray Council’s leader quits after losing support over schools

Allan Wright
Allan Wright

The leader of Moray Council announced he was quitting the top job following yesterday’s vote to save schools across the region.

Allan Wright resigned as head of the Conservative/Independent administration after councillors voted 16 to eight in favour of saving Milne’s High and against any more school closures for the next five years.

Mr Wright said he would stay on as leader until December to fulfil his obligations to the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA).

He is also staying on in his role as councillor for Heldon and Laich.

Last night Mr Wright told the Press and Journal he was standing down because it was the “honourable” thing to do after losing the support of his fellow councillors over the Sustainable Education Review (SER).

He said: “I believe in democracy and democracy rules, but, after today’s vote, I just don’t believe that you can be the leader of the council when you don’t enjoy the support of the majority of councillors.

“The vote today was 16 to eight, and I was one of the eight.”

Mr Wright said he had thought hard about his future before yesterday’s meeting and had felt he was “out of touch” when it came to the decision.

“The issue was compounded by the fact that I was on leave for a fortnight,” he said.

“When I left I thought we had complete agreement from the cross party group on the report, as it stood today without any of the motions or amendments. The ‘no closing rural schools’ stuff from the SNP came in my absence.

“I really feel this has been a missed opportunity, and I think we will live to regret it,” he added.

Pearl Paul, leader of the SNP group, backed the motion to keep all rural schools open and said she could not support Mr Wright’s position.

She said: “If councillors feel strongly about an issue then they clearly have the right to vote on it.

“I recognise that Councillor Wright finds that to be a challenging situation to lose such a significant vote, and I understand his reasons for announcing his intention to step down as Council Leader. I am disappointed that he feels that way, but I respect his decision.”

Conservative colleague, Douglas Ross, said he hoped Mr Wright would change his mind.

He said: “Allan and I have disagreed on many issues, but when it comes to putting in long hours on behalf of Moray Council I believe we are very well served with Allan as leader of the council.

“I don’t think any of the other elected members could do the job as well as him, which is why I hope he reconsiders his position.

“It’s often easy to criticise the people at the top of an organisation and in his role as leader, Allan has often borne the brunt of the public reaction to a particular council decision, but there are many things he has done for the council which have a huge positive impact which often go unreported.”

Angus Robertson MP said yesterday’s decision was “an effective vote of no confidence” in the leadership of council, but wished the departing leader all the best for the future.

However, Mr Wright rejected these claims. He said: “It wasn’t a vote of no confidence in the administration, but clearly I no longer enjoyed the support of the councilors on yesterday’s issue, so I felt the only thing I could do honourably as leader was to step down.”