MORAY SNP COUNCILLORS WIN SUPPORT FOR MANAGEMENT REVIEW.

Moray SNP Councillors have won support during Wednesday’s Council Meeting to progress a Management Review.

The SNP proposal that this should be a priority for the Council Project Management received majority backing in the Council and means that an SNP budget proposal will now be progressed.

Welcoming the decision SNP Opposition Leader Cllr Gary Coull said:

“The SNP has consistently said that the Council needs to review and restructure its management as part of the savings to balance the budget.

“People across Moray regularly tell us that the Council needs to cut back on senior and middle management to help protect frontline services and reduce future cuts to those services.

“We put those proposals in our budget in February and the Independents and Tories in the Administration didn’t take that on board, however I am pleased that they have come round to supporting that view.”

During the same meeting Labour Councillor Sean Morton proposed that

the Council should not make any cuts and complain to the Scottish Government about the Council’s budget. His motion was ruled incompetent as it would cause the Council to breach financial regulations on public spending.

On Cllr Morton’s outburst the SNP’s Cllr Coull said:

“The idea that the Council can just write to Government and refuse to spend within its means is utterly laughable and totally irresponsible. I don’t know anyone who thinks that the Council can’t find more savings. Cllr Morton would be better placed taking the Council’s budget situation seriously rather than grandstanding. The fact that he didn’t even get the support of his own Labour Group Leader will tell people just how ridiculous his stunt was.

“Cllr Morton should remember who really holds the purse strings - the Tories at Westminster - the very establishment he campaigned to keep.

“The SNP will work constructively where we agree but we will not be steamrollered when we have a fundamental disagreement.”