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The Moray Council is keen to get your help, including your views, to “narrow the gap” between Council income and expenditure.
The next Council budget date is February 2019, when the Council expects to use more of its reserves to help narrow part of the gap between income and expenditure. But the Council is flagging up that it will also have to find savings by reducing services further.
The Council is currently holding a first round of events to start a conversation between councillors, Council officers and the people of Moray. This is intended to start shaping the proposals that will eventually find their way to the next budget-setting meeting of the Council in February.
Evening meetings have already been held in Elgin and Buckie last week, and you may have spotted “pop-up shops” and “drop-is sessions” in Keith and Elgin last Friday and Saturday.
More evening meeting are being held at Speyside High tomorrow, Tuesday 30, and at Forres Academy on Thursday, 31 May, both starting at 7pm. A drop-in session will take place today, Monday, at Lossiemouth Community Centre, from 10am to 4pm.
If you are intending to attend an evening meeting, you are asked to book through https://www.eventbrite.com/e/closing-the-gap-tickets-45799207663?aff=erelexpmlt for the Speyside event and through https://www.eventbrite.com/e/closing-the-gap-tickets-45799273861?aff=erelexpmlt for the Forres event.
If you can’t make either an evening event or the drop-in session, you may wish to complete an online survey at https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/3LF655L, where you will have the opportunity to tell the Council which services you consider essential.
The survey will be open until the end of May, with the results reported to councillors at their meeting on 28 June 2018. Results will also be available through the Council’s website and social media.
More information on the Council’s financial position is available in their “The story so far” booklet, downloadable at http://www.moray.gov.uk/downloads/file119913.pdf.