Elgin business improvement district were congratulated for all the work they have done to make Moray’s largest town centre vibrant again.
The council recently completely “health checks” of the biggest shopping districts across the region to compare with the results of a survey carried out two years ago and it mostly made for positive reading.
Fewer empty buildings have been reported in Elgin town centre, Forres, Lossiemouth and Dufftown.
Elgin City South councillor John Divers congratulated Elgin BID and Elgin Cars for all the work they have put in to make the town busier again, with shop vacancies falling from 14.3 in 2016 to 10 in 2018.
He said: “In Elgin we have seen a significant improvement in vacancies there and I think Elgin BID need to take a lot of credit for this as they have taken on the mantle of taking on the keys for a lot of these businesses and ensuring that any potential retailers that want to move have easy access.
“Prior to Elgin BID taking that on, it was very difficult in that a number of these owners were down in England and further afield so the work of Elgin BID is proving positive for that.
“The work of Elgin Cars is also important making the city centre a much smarter place.”
With Lossiemouth also seeing a huge decrease in empty shops, going from 15.7 in 2016 to 9.2 in 2018 and Heldon and Laich councillor John Cowe praised the Lossiemouth Business Association for their hard work.
He said: “Lossiemouth has been extremely vibrant this last while and would like to congratulate Lossiemouth Business Association (LBA) and Lossiemouth Community Development Trust (LCDT) on the work they do.
“Since June 29, there have been further shop openings in Lossiemouth, a new restaurant as well, so the percentage of empty units has gone down so the LBA and LCDT are working extremely hard to do that.”
