The future of RAF Lossiemouth and the Scotland were on the agenda yesterday when the Scottish Secretary visited Moray.
David Mundell has now visited all of Scotland’s 32 local authorities since taking up his cabinet position last year.
Prior to meeting senior Moray Council staff yesterday, Mr Mundell visited RAF Lossiemouth and the Strathisla Distillery in Keith, seeing for himself two of the region’s key markets.
He met with the council’s chief executive Roddy Burns, leader Stewart Cree and convener Alan Wright and the future of Ministry of Defence sites at Lossiemouth and Kinloss were among the topics on the agenda.
Last year, the government announced nine new maritime patrol aircraft would be based at Lossiemouth, tasked with protecting the UK’s nuclear deterrent, hunting hostile submarines and enhancing maritime search and rescue.
The new aircraft will mean an additional 400 jobs at the Lossiemouth base.
Mr Mundell said: “The government has announced in the strategic defence review a significant investment into Lossiemouth.
“We hope to have another Typhoon squadron and the marine patrol aircraft coming there and we want to work with the council to make sure that we can support and assist in that development.
“We’ve come a long way from where people were concerned about the future of that base to it really being one of the most important bases in the United Kingdom.
“That is very much on the agenda.”
Mr Mundell also discussed the role that Moray Council will play in delivering new powers promised north of the border once the Scotland Bill is implemented.
He added: “Moray is the last of the 32 councils in Scotland that I will have met.
“I believe that local government is a really important part of civic society in Scotland.
“We’re about to see the Scotland Bill come into law and that will have quite a big impact on the Scottish Parliament, making what I would call a powerhouse parliament with new powers over tax and welfare.
“It’s clearly going to have an impact on councils too because they’re going to administer some of those powers.”
