A GAELIC LANGUAGE PLAN will be brought forward in Moray – despite the fact that there has only been support by four residents for the idea.
Councillors attending the policy and resources committee on Tuesday were presented with a paper proposing that the plan go ahead, although they were warned that the programme had attracted little interest from the public.
Scottish Government legislation, however, requires every council to create their own Gaelic Language Plan and so members had little option but to vote the proposals through – with the Leader of the Council, Stewart Cree, commenting that there was many other things he would rather have done with the funding required.
Public consultations were carried out over three months with the report commenting: “We received six submissions with two of those opposed to the plan. One negative response was based on the grounds that it is inappropriate for Moray to support Gaelic given the low number of Gaelic speakers.”
However, there was a promise from the corporate director for education and social care, Laurence Findlay, that Moray would “not go overboard” in supporting the plan, which cost Moray £700 to translate into Gaelic last year.
He said: “The key word here is proportionality – there is no suggestion we pull down all our road signs and replace our logos with Gaelic versions. We should give proportionate consideration to the plan when reviewing these things.”
Moray Council has a duty under the Gaelic Language (Scotland) Act 2005, which says that local authorities must raise awareness of Gaelic in their region and promote the benefits of learning the language.