Moray Labour councillor slams 'no show' SNP

A senior Labour councillor has issued a forthright denial that his party and the Conservatives entered into an "unofficial coalition" over the Moray Council budget.

Instead, John Divers (Labour South) has blamed the SNP for failing to communicate.

The Conservative administration's budget, passed last week by 15 votes to 10, included several amendments put forward by Labour.

SNP co-leader Graham Leadbitter (Elgin South) subsequently accused Labour of having entered into an "unofficial coalition".

Cllr Divers responded yesterday by stating the SNP had not made enough effort to try and get its own amendments through.

He said: "We put our amendments out on the Monday morning.

"The only group to approach us was the Conservative group.

"Councillor Sandy Keith (the Labour leader) and myself sat in our office expecting the SNP to come and speak to us about the amendments.

"All I can say – no show.

"How can we then form an agreement with anybody who doesn’t even bother to come and speak to us on any items?

"If the SNP want their budgets to get through, they need to come and speak to opposition groups."

Cllr Leadbitter stated that the SNP had shared their budget proposals the week before the meeting.

He added: "I did have a conversation with Labour group members about the content of that, and the offer was there to meet."

For lending their votes to the Conservatives, the Labour group secured a commitment to set up a £500,000 education investment fund.

The proposed closure of the council's employee assistance programme, which promotes staff wellbeing, was also reversed.

In addition, a £20,000 donation will now be made to Moray's food bank, along with a £5000 donation to the Turkey and Syria earthquake relief effort.

A £120,000 fund, with £15,000 for each ward which councillors can distribute for small projects, will also be re-instated.

Meanwhile, the SNP's budget proposals would have included measures to support people in fuel poverty.

They would have also bolstered Moray's youth workers and community wardens and abandoned plans to scrap a role on the council regarding climate change.

On a separate issue cllr Divers also took aim yesterday at some SNP councillors, accusing them of wasting time by asking unnecessary questions.

He said: "I think that finger can be pointed at their own group because they are the ones who are continuing to ask questions on pieces that are in the papers already.

"They don’t need to be asked again.

"The reason we get our papers a week before is so officers' time is not being wasted.

"I’m all for scrutiny, but totally against time-wasting."

By contrast, Jérémie Fernandes (Elgin North, SNP) felt the increased number of questions was a result of elected members "doing their job".

He said: "It’s been alluded by other members in previous meetings that the current council is probably more diligent than the previous one.

"It's far to say – and it's not a secret – that some members in the last term probably checked out early.

"If I was a betting man I would bet some of them never read their papers beforehand."

Yesterday's discussions also touched on the number of notices of motion and points of order now being added to council agendas.

Scott Lawrence (Forres, SNP) stated his party had "limited levers" to get its points across, so raising a notice of motion was one way of highlighting an issue.

He said: "Political discourse in committee is a reflection of the democratic outcome of the position we find ourselves in."