Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Citizens Advice funding saved as councillors debate budget

Sandra Dow, manager of Moray Citizens Advice
Sandra Dow, manager of Moray Citizens Advice

The future of Moray’s Citzien’s Advice Bureau proved a deciding factor in the outcome of yesterday’s council budget talks.

The organisation mainly offers advice on benefits, debt, employment, housing and relationships.

In response to increasing demand, management had hoped to use its reserves to push forward with an expansion programme.

But Moray Council’s administration group proposed slashing its funding by £14,000, despite warnings that such a move would waylay the bureau’s attempts to help more people.

Council leader Stewart Cree said officers had discovered that the Elgin-based advice group has savings in excess of £140,000.

But Mr Cree said: “We do not believe it is reasonable for a partner agency to use its reserves to fund an expansion in its services at a time when the council is forced to consider wide-ranging cuts elsewhere.

“By protecting the CAB reserves, the council is simply depleting its own.”

However, Fochabers Lhanbryde councillor, Douglas Ross, said he would only vote for the administration’s financial plan if CAB funding was left intact.

His demands were later met, and the budget was passed with little other alterations.

Chairman of the Moray bureau’s management board, Eddie Coutts, later spoke of his relief and thanked the councillors who fought for the group.

He added: “We are delighted at the outcome, we got what we believe was the right result.

“That means we can now hang onto the reserves which we have built up for more than 20 years.

“We can now look at the possibility of increasing our service, while the administration budget would have forced us to reduce what we can offer.”

Mr Cree later said that he had only learned about an imminent review of Moray Council’s relationship with the benevolent group during the meeting.

He said his change of heart was based upon the partnership between two bodies being reevaluated within months.