How should we spend your money in Moray?
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A survey has been released today asking locals to rank their priorities for Moray Council services.
The local authority says it needs to identify around £20million of reductions over the next two years.
It adds that its budget has already seen savings of £58million since 2010.
Therefore the council is asking people how far they could tolerate increases to charges or changes to the services they currently receive.
Council leader Kathleen Robertson (Forres, Conservative) said:"We know the settlement we receive from the government won’t be enough to keep up with inflationary pressures, including a rise in the Living Wage, ever increasing construction costs and ageing school buildings.
"While we have the ability to raise additional income, we’re limited in ways that will allow us to maintain all our current levels of service.
"The unfortunate and stark reality is there will be service cuts in Moray next year. There is no way round it and we need residents to help us by completing this initial survey to say where they would tolerate those cuts falling.
"Nobody wants them and we can’t say they’re acceptable, but they’re necessary, and we need locals to look at the future of Moray Council with us, make their views known and work with us to shape that future council."
Moray Council’s budget in 2023/24 was £260.8million.
This was made up of Scottish Government grants and funding (59%), council tax income (15%), other grants (15%) and charges (7%).
The survey takes about 10 minutes to complete and can be found HERE
