Elgin town centre has its highest number of empty shops since records began 14 years ago.
There are 40 vacant units, up from 32 recorded in 2021.
In contrast the town’s Edgar Road, which includes two retail parks, has seen vacancies drop from seven to five since 2018.
Elgin on the ‘cusp’ of better things
And a further two units have been let since the latest town centre health check in 2023, with Pure Gym and Chest Heart and Stroke opening up.
Moray Council started monitoring the situation in 2010, and carry out investigations every two years.
As well as Elgin the survey includes Forres, Keith, Buckie and Lossiemouth.
For the first time last year a perception survey was also undertaken. It includes rating various aspects of town centres and reasons for people visiting them.
However Elgin was rated poorly in terms of its retail offering, evening economy, daytime events, attractiveness, public transport and cleanliness.
Forres has also seen a rise in vacant units since the last survey. The number has gone up to 18 from 12 in 2021.
Negative impact on town centre
Buckie had 11 vacant units, one more than in 2018. And there were five empty in Lossiemouth and seven in Keith.
However members at the meeting of the full council this week felt the situation had improved across Moray since the 2023 survey.
Elgin North councillor Sandy Keith felt projects including the South Street development to bring unoccupied building back into use would improve the situation.
And he thought Elgin was on the “cusp” of a brighter future.
Mr Keith said: “The Poundland building I think is going to be an asset to the town.
“And the reopening of traffic to North Street and the hoardings being taken down will help with the attractiveness of the town.
“This is a snapshot in time, and the regeneration going on will bring back some of it’s former glories.”
Elgin South member John Divers felt previous planning decisions taken by councillors had negatively impacted the town centre.
A snapshot in time
He said: “A lot of this is our own making.
“We’ve allowed a lot of out of town building to go on in the past.
“It comes with the guise that there will be more jobs. And while there will be more jobs in those places, we’ve lost jobs on the High Street.
“There is a policy of town centre first, but that’s lost through the planning process.”
Limited audits were also carried out in Aberlour, Dufftown, Fochabers and Rothes.
Councillor for Speyside Glenlivet Juli Harris raised concerns that only 1% of the population of Aberlour responded to the perception survey.
And that fell to fewer than 0.5% of people in Dufftown.
The health checks monitor strengths, viability, weaknesses and resilience of town centres.
Councillors accepted the 2023 report. It will be used as a material consideration in retail planning policy.
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