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Forres Moray Councillors explain votes over Conservative Group bid to take over Administration from SNP


By Garry McCartney

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Cllrs Claire Feaver and Tim Eagle attempted to replace the council's current committee system with an executive cabinet system.
Cllrs Claire Feaver and Tim Eagle attempted to replace the council's current committee system with an executive cabinet system.

LOCAL Moray Councillors have explained their votes following a recent bid by the region's Conservative Group to overturn the way Moray Council is run.

Last Wednesday, an online meeting of the full council saw a motion put forward to change the local authority's SNP-minority administration rejected by 13 votes to 11, with one abstention.

The motion, put forward by the Conservative group leader Tim Eagle (Buckie), would also have seen the council's current committee system replaced with an executive cabinet system.

Cllr Eagle argued that an executive cabinet system would be "smaller, smarter and swifter".

Cllr Claire Feaver believes an opportunity has been missed to modernise the local authority.
Cllr Claire Feaver believes an opportunity has been missed to modernise the local authority.

His Tory colleague Claire Feaver (Forres) was disappointed with the result, particularly as cllr Eagle had invested considerable time reviewing alternative ways successful local authorities elsewhere are being run.

She said: "By working together, we really could have achieved something positive for local people who depend on the services Moray Council provides. Time and time again, independent assessors have told us that the council is under-performing, and needs to modernise. This is why, as the largest group at Moray Council (after a recent by-election gain, plus a resignation from the SNP group) we felt we really had to offer an alternative to the SNP minority administration."

Cllr Feaver explained that her group's bid was based on implementing governance on a cabinet basis.

She said: "It would also have involved 13 councillors in the administration from more than just one group, rather than just eight from one group, which is the current set-up. We felt this was more democratic and far more likely to deliver change and improvement.

"Unfortunately, while we gained support from one group of Independent councillors, the other group decided it preferred to keep things the same. Trying to get both groups of Independents to agree on anything is apt to be challenging and so it proved on this occasion."

Cllr George Alexander did not believe the cabinet system suggested by the Tories could work.
Cllr George Alexander did not believe the cabinet system suggested by the Tories could work.

Local councillor George Alexander was one of the Independents who objected.

He said: "The motion was ill judged. It makes little difference, in a committee system, whether Moray Council has a minority administration of SNP or Conservative councillors because the financial restrictions make choices very limited.

"A minority administration cannot make any progress without the support of other councillors so this puts a curb on any extreme political ambitions. The motion tabled by the two conservative councillors made it quite clear that their ambition to replace the leader and convener was inextricably linked with an aim to abandon the long-established committee system and replace it with a weighted cabinet system. The cabinet would have a built-in majority of Conservative councillors and other members of the council could only make recommendations, which could well be ignored, to the ruling cabinet. With the final budget having to be agreed by the full council, this could mean great uncertainty, right up to the day of the budget setting."

Cllr Alexander suggested that councillors had already decided against such a change in February.

He said: "If this notice of motion was really a bid to oust the present administration, then all that the promoters needed to do was separate the motion to replace the leader and convener from the motion to create a weighted cabinet. Such a move would have won the day, as there are a number of councillors who would have abstained on the vote to replace the convener and leader.

"Remaining with an SNP minority administration which only has eight councillors to fill all the committee chairs is not ideal and will require some degree of dedication and hard work. Meanwhile we have a group of nine Conservative councillors who have made it clear to all that they are not interested in taking on the mantle of responsibility, unless they get to change the system to one where their decisions are final."

Cllr Alexander pointed out that there are less than four months to balance the 2021-22 budget.

He added: "We could be heading for another full lockdown and council officers are already operating at full capacity under very difficult working conditions. This is not the time to ask officers to change the whole governance of the council."

Cllr Lorna Creswell just wants all councillors to work together to guide the Administration through a difficult period.
Cllr Lorna Creswell just wants all councillors to work together to guide the Administration through a difficult period.

Fellow local Independent Lorna Creswell feels a new system may be worth researching.

"However," she said, "at this time with massive financial challenges and child poverty statistics pre-pandemic, coupled with the crisis we are now in, we should all be working cooperatively for Moray health and economy."

Cllr Aaron McLean claimed the Conservatives were trying to manufacture a majority.
Cllr Aaron McLean claimed the Conservatives were trying to manufacture a majority.

Cllr Aaron McLean (SNP, Forres) was also against a change to a cabinet system.

He said: "The Conservatives wanted to move to 11 councillors making the decisions and they wanted to manufacture a majority by giving themselves six seats on that cabinet.

"That is not right for Moray which is split between a third of councillors being from the SNP, a third Tory and the final third being independents.

"The SNP will continue in administration and try to gain support from other councillors to get votes passed unless the Conservatives gain a consensus instead of trying to manufacture a majority."



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