Council Leader Cree's peg appears to be more shoogly than ever.

Following on from the vote to abandon the western link road last week Council Leader Cllr Stewart Cree released the following statement.

Cllr Cree said:

“Further to the Council decision on the Elgin Western Link Route on 30 March 2016, I know there will be speculation regarding the future of the administration group within the Council and the role that they intend to take.

Despite the disappointment of the Link Road decision, the administration group has no desire to stand down from its responsibilities. We were elected to serve and we are committed to seeing that duty through.

I have every confidence that the members of that group, and in particular those individuals who chair the standing committees of the Council or other council bodies, will continue to use their talents and experience to improve Moray despite continued attempts on the part of the opposition to undermine our efforts.

Our duty is to ensure that the council is handed on to the next administration following next year’s elections in sound financial shape, and a great deal of work needs to be carried out before then. Working as a minority administration this will not be easy, but we will do whatever is best in the interests of all those in the communities we serve, both locally and within the wider community of Moray.

As has been widely reported recently, the council needs to reduce its annual spend by £14million by 2017/18. We know that, politically, certain decisions may be unacceptable for some councillors. However, we also understand that we cannot allow Moray to continue to accumulate a financial deficit which is unsustainable and, if not addressed, runs the risk of the authority defaulting on its public duties.

We will, therefore, be working with council officers and the wider public to identify where savings can be made, and to set a balanced budget in advance of the 2017 elections.”

However SNP opposition group leader Cllr Gary Coull responded to Cllr Cree's comments.

Cllr Coull said:

“The SNP Opposition Group in Moray Council are very clear that we will take on the Administration of the Council if that is what is required of us but we are also very clear that we are, ourselves, a minority and without a majority position it is far from certain that others in the Council would support us in that course of action.

“Despite being soundly defeated in last week’s Capital Budget vote the Council Leader continues to cast blame around and refuses to take the degree of responsibility and leadership that is rightly expected of him.

“In the same sentence as praising his colleagues who are committee chairs the Council Leader blames the opposition for trying to ‘undermine’ the Administration, yet they lost this important vote because two of their own Administration group voted against the plans, including their Chair of Planning and Regulatory Services!

“This is typical deflection by the Council Leader from his own leadership failings. His peg appears to be more shoogly than ever at this time.

“SNP Councillors participated positively and effectively in cross party working with the Administration and other opposition councillors until the Administration themselves walked away from that arrangement. If Councillor Cree wants to work with us we are open to discussion on how that could be re-invigorated.

“If he is not prepared to work with the Council’s opposition groups in an effective manner then I suspect he will continue to suffer fractures and disgruntlement within his own Administration and unsurprisingly that is likely to lead to more difficult votes for him.”