Budget 2024/25

The following provides information on the additional savings identified and agreed by full council on 28 February 2024.

Cleaning – Facilities Management
Current service: The Facilities Management Service provides building cleaning across the school and office estate within Moray, janitorial service within the school environment and facilities services within HQ/Annexe and Rose Cottage. They also oversee the caretaking service for public lets.
Change: Reduce frequency of cleaning in HQ/Annexe buildings by 20%. Focus will remain on high-risk priority areas.

Building standards
Current service: The Development Management & Building Standards teams deliver a statutory service determining planning applications, other consents and building warrants. Both teams have responsibility for enforcement and compliance with plans and conditions imposed. 
Change: Reduce service delivery relating to the investigation and enforcement of development management.  

Environmental Health & Trading Standards
Current service: Environmental Health and Trading Standards deliver Statutory Functions, including: Health and Safety; housing standards; repair; housing of multiple occupancy; public health; pollution control; land contamination; noise; animal boarding and more.
Change: Review of service delivery relating to bringing empty homes back into use and realigning statutory work across the service. 

Organisational Development
Current service: Organisational Development leads on corporate workforce strategy planning, provision of organisational development advice, professional training advice and support to the council’s workforce including employee engagement and workforce culture and corporate communications and central health and safety functions.
Change: Move to a curating approach where training and development activity and e-learning is bought in as opposed to be created and delivered in-house.  

Money Advice Service
Current service: A debt management service (including debtor arrangements for multiple debts) for those in financial difficulties. This is a discretionary service but has preventative benefits.
The service is a discrete unit and is under high demand from some of the most vulnerable households in Moray, following the covid crisis and the current cost of living crisis. 
Change: Reduce the money advice service.

Governance, strategy and performance
Current service: Leads and contributes to performance management and reporting of all council services; corporate strategy and community planning; complaints and equalities; information governance.
Change: To reduce the Equal Opportunities and Research and Information resource and restructure responsibilities amongst team

Continuing phase two of our budget engagement, we’re also considering how our leisure and libraries estate could be run differently. With a reduction in budgets coming, the way all of our existing facilities and services are delivered needs to be considered.   

Find out more about how our services run just now in the drop-down boxes below then head to our survey to have your say.

Survey for the leisure services is here: https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/LEISURE23

Survey for the Libraries, Learning Centres and Heritage services is here: https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/LIBRARIES23

We’ll also be running a series of drop-in sessions and facilitated discussions with members of the public on the following dates:

Buckie Library: Wednesday 22 November, 3pm-7pm
Aberlour Library: Thursday 23 November, 3pm-4.45pm
Speyside Sports & Community Centre: Thursday 23 November, 5pm-7pm
Lossiemouth Sports & Community Centre (library): Friday 24 November, 3pm-7pm
Keith Sports & Community Centre: Monday 27 November, 3pm-7pm
Forres House Community Centre (library entrance): Tuesday 28 November, 3pm-7pm
Elgin Library: Wednesday 29 November, 12noon-5pm

Moray Council operates nine leisure facilities across the Local Authority area

• Buckie Swimming Pool
• Elgin Community Centre (closing 31 March 2024)
• Forres House Community Centre
• Forres Swimming Pool
• Keith Sports & Community Centre
• Lossiemouth Sports & Community Centre
• Speyside Sports & Community Centre
• Milnes High Fitness Room
• Elgin High Sports Block

Staff at these facilities also manage and operate the local outdoor sports facilities, such as astroturf pitches, grass pitches and pavilions.

Key facts about our leisure facilities

• All of the above nine leisure facilities vary in size, functionality, opening hours and facility condition – making it difficult to compare like-for-like.
• Apart from Elgin and Forres House Community Centres, all of our facilities are used for PE curriculum/education delivery through the week so there are certain areas of restricted for public access from 8.45am-6.00pm on weekdays. Curriculum and educational needs fluctuate from term-to-term so leisure facility timetables change on a termly basis.
• A Facilities Planning Model report generated by sportscotland in 2021 identified that Moray has 16sqm of waterspace (swimming pool space) per 1,000 population – the national average at this time was 17sqm.
• The same report identified that Moray had the equivalent of ten sports courts per 10,000 population (based on large sports halls only) – the national average at this time was seven.
• We have approximately 138 staff employed to support the delivery of Sport & Leisure facilities and programmes across Moray (this figure includes Full Time, Part Time and Relief staff).

The Sport & Leisure Team provide a wide array of functions/activities across Moray including;

- Access to swimming
- Provision of swimming lessons
- Provision of leisure facilities for school curriculum purposes
- Access to health suites (sauna/steam room)
- Access to fitness rooms
- Access to weights rooms
- Delivery of exercise classes (Spinning, Aqua Aerobics, Body Pump etc)
- Delivery of Physical Activity for Health Programme (Exercise Referral)
- Access to Climbing Wall (Speyside)
- Access to grass and astroturf pitches for outdoor sports activities (including use of pavilions)
- Use of sports halls for recreational activities (such as 5-a-side football, public badminton session)
- Use of leisure facilities for Active Schools sessions
- Use of leisure facilities for walking sports sessions
- Use of leisure facilities to local community organisations such as sports clubs, arts/culture groups (providing a home for these organisations)
- Use of leisure facilities for one off events (birthday parties)
- Use of leisure facilities for businesses/organisations for meeting spaces
- Use of leisure facilities as Council Office spaces and for partner organisations to deliver services
- Use of school sports facilities to local community organisations such as sports clubs, arts/culture groups

The number of people accessing each leisure facility across 2022/23 is shown in the table below. The table provides an overall total and how these compare to 2021/22 statistics as well as income generated and how this compares to 2021/22 income.

Main Stakeholders

The main sport and leisure stakeholders are sportscotland, National Governing Bodies of Sport, Public Health Scotland, NHS Grampian, Scottish Government, Council teams such as Family & Adult Learning and Education, Community Groups, Customers/Users of leisure facilities and employees.

The Future

To deliver a Sport & Leisure Service within a reduced budget allocation the following should be taken into account when considering alternative delivery models:
- Usage levels
- Facility condition
- Future capital developments in locality areas
- Income Generation
- Diversity of programmes delivered
- Protected characteristic group usage
- Energy efficiency/carbon footprint
- Distance decay function (20min drive catchments)
- National comparators of service provision

Moray Council operate 11 library facilities across the Local Authority area in Aberlour; Buckie; Burghead; Cullen; Dufftown; Elgin; Fochabers; Forres; Keith; Lossiemouth and Tomintoul.

The service also has a mobile library bus with a five week timetable covering the length and breadth of Moray.

Key facts about our library facilities

• All 11 libraries vary in size, functionality, opening hours and facility condition – making it difficult to make like-for-like comparisons.
• Our libraries in Lossiemouth, Burghead, Fochabers and Tomintoul are located within a school, therefore the libraries are utilised by both the school and local community.
• Moray currently sits 10th out of 32 Local Authorities in regards to the number of libraries operating based on the size of the local population.
• We have approximately 75 staff employed to support the delivery of Libraries, Learning Centres & Heritage across Moray (this figure includes Full Time, Part Time and Relief staff).

The Libraries, Learning Centre & Heritage Team provide a wide array of functions across Moray, including;

- Free internet and email access from public PC’s (statutory requirement)
- Borrowing of books, resources and materials for free
- Access reference materials
- Photocopying & fax facilities
- Provide ‘warm and welcome spaces’, free period products
- Provide study space, work space, meeting space, activity space
- Heritage support, enquiries, searches, activities and outreach work
- School, Nursery and Community Group Visits
- Act as Information Hubs (signposting for Council/Government services and enquiries)
- Supporting completion of applications that are solely online to the digitally excluded (example bus pass)
- Job Clubs, Help Hubs
- Skills Development opportunities
- Outreach work in local communities
- Partnership working – improved service delivery
- Events & Activities for all ages (inc. families) – bookbug sessions, lego clubs, book clubs, knitting clubs, author events
- eAudio, eBook and digital magazine download service
- Housebound Reader Service
- Deliver informal and formal ICT courses to SQA and BCS standards
- Deliver digital technology, coding, augmented reality activities and events
- Offer NHS Near Me service (online consultancy service)
- Provide opportunities through social prescribing/Health and Wellbeing Support
- Partner in regards to the Moray Growth Deal projects – particularly the Cultural Quarter project and the STEM project

There is a cultural shift from libraries being viewed as solely book repositories to becoming information focussed community hubs that provide social interaction, particularly for vulnerable or disadvantaged groups.

The number of people visiting each library across 2022/23 is shown in the table below. The table provides an overall total, an average based on the varying weekly opening hours and how these figures compare to 2021/22 statistics.

Main Stakeholders

The main stakeholders for Libraries, Learning Centres and Heritage services are the Scottish Library & Informational Council (SLIC), National Library of Scotland, NHS Grampian, Scottish Government, Council teams such as Family & Adult Learning and Youth Work, Moray College/UHI, Moray Pathways, Local Businesses, Community Groups, Customers/Users of library facilities and employees.

The Future

To deliver a Libraries, Learning Centre & Heritage services with a reduced budget the following should be taken into consideration.

- Usage levels
- Enquiry levels
- Facility Condition
- Facility Size/Space/Capabilities
- Future capital developments in locality areas
- Partnership Facility reliance
- Weekly operational hours
- Diversity of programmes delivered
- Protected characteristic group usage
- Energy efficiency/carbon footprint
- Distance decay function (20min drive catchment),
- National comparators of service provision

The following provides further information for each of the proposals being consulted on in the next stage of the Budget 2024/25 engagement until 22 November 2023. The survey to give feedback on these can be found here.

Saving: £50,000 (per year)

Current service: provides waste management services to all residents. Ensuring that as comprehensive a waste management service as possible is delivered which is efficient, complies with our legal obligations and meets the needs of residents.

Services delivered are:

• Waste and Recycling collection from domestic and commercial properties at the kerbside.
• Acceptance, storage, treatment, and disposal of waste produced by Moray residents.
• Street sweeping and litter picking of public areas.
• Provision of public toilets across Moray.

Current opening hours (sites closed 11.50am to 12:30am for lunch):

Mon – Sat : 0900 – 1600
Sun : 1000 – 1500

Proposal: reduced opening hours at staffed Household Waste and Recycling Centres (HWRCs) in Elgin, Buckie, Forres, Keith and Dallachy.

The proposal is to close all sites on one weekday.

Potential impact: may lead to reduced levels of recycling and increased levels of fly-tipping. There may also be an increase in traffic when sites are open due to reduced opening hours.

Saving: £30,000 (per year) 

Current service: delivers statutory services for animals. Includes correct disposal of animal carcases; animal welfare; farm welfare inspections; seizure of animals at risk; control of disease outbreaks in commercial flocks and herds such as bird flu and foot and mouth disease; rabies control on imported pets; dog warden and dangerous dog control; breeding of dogs, riding establishments, pet shops, performing animals, animal boarding and dangerous and wild animals licensing. Other Environmental Health functions include private water supplies; sunbeds; tattooing; pollution control; noise and nuisance; mortuary provision and trading standards services are integrated with this service.

Proposal: Reduction of service delivery regarding support for animal services with realignment of statutory across the service.

Potential impact: Reducing the service would have a significant impact on the resilience and capacity within the service to deal with outbreaks such as bird flu, E.coli etc. and will diminish the ability of the service across all statutory duties all of which are directly related to public health. Increased risk to public from dangerous dogs.

Saving: £65,000 (per year)

Current service: Property Asset Management incorporates Estates and Property Resources, as well as Housing Asset Management, which is funded from the Housing Revenue Account (HRA). Estates oversee a range of Council property assets. This includes leasing, selling and managing the properties. The service also has direct management responsibility for the Council’s industrial portfolio, which delivers a surplus to the Council.

Proposal: phased increase in rental charges by 15% across the industrial portfolio over five years. 

Over the next three years all short-term agreements are reviewed, along with ensuring all rent reviews on longer term lease agreements continue to be actioned timeously. 

Potential impact: increased rents in-line with market increases and focus on increasing short term agreements first, to maximise early income uplifts will increase rent for tenants but be justified by market evidence.

Community learning and training

Saving: £4,000 (per year)

Current service: The Communities team brings together the different Community Learning & Development functions to drive forward the community based outcomes to enable the local authority to effectively deliver its statutory responsibilities in community learning and community empowerment.
The service acts as a focal point for community engagement and support and works with other services across the local authority to embed community development and empowerment approaches to ensure our services, activities and plans are jointly developed with the communities served.

Proposal: reduce the Community Capacity budget by 50%. The budget currently delivers training for community resilience; facilitates learning opportunities; supports Community Learning Development Pathways.

Potential impact: reduced opportunities and qualifications for learners/activists and a reduction in accreditation for young people and adults with increased barriers to participation.

Volunteers will be unable to deliver services including the significant amount of voluntary groups that have taken on Community Asset transfers or rural provision

Unable to implement the new Adult Learning Strategy and forthcoming Youth Work Strategy.

Community Support Unit – Participatory Budgeting support

Saving: £86,000 (per year)

Current service: The Communities team brings together the different Community Learning & Development functions to drive forward the community based outcomes to enable the local authority to effectively deliver its statutory responsibilities in community learning and community empowerment. The Participatory Budget process helps to improve local involvement in deciding how to allocation funding as well as helping to draw in additional resources.

Proposal: review the service supporting participatory budgeting 

Potential impact: the focus being placed on priority areas of community engagement work may only take place when required as a statutory consultation. Reduction in the availability for community engagement support and capacity building support as well as funding opportunities for projects in the community, such as play parks.

Customer services

Saving: £114,000 (per year)

Current service: The Contact Centre is the first point of contact with the public. They provide information, undertake transactions and make appointments for many services within the Council.

The Council has significant discretion as to how the service is delivered.

Proposal: Reduce the size of the team dealing with incoming emails and calls.

Priority calls are filtered so those with urgent needs are dealt with quicker.

Potential impact: The proposed changes could impact the vulnerable service users. The impact on the public would increase call waiting times, reduce the volume of enquiries that can be handled and increase the time taken to respond to emails resulting in a backlog. This would impact the service by increased workloads on remaining staff.  

Outdoor learning

Saving: £115,000 (per year)

Current service: The Communities team brings together the different Community Learning & Development functions to drive forward the community based outcomes to enable the local authority to effectively deliver its statutory responsibilities in community learning and community empowerment.

Provides and facilitates outdoor learning and training opportunities to children and young people, staff and volunteers, including overseeing the safety approval process.

Proposal: reduce the service which supports outdoor learning and the Duke of Edinburgh award scheme.

Potential impact: reduction in outdoor learning opportunities available for children and young people and significantly reducing current wellbeing benefits. Specialist knowledge and management of the EVOLVE system, which is used across the council to ensure safety review of every off site activity and adventurous activity as per the councils Adventurous Activities Licence, could be lost.

Mobile Libraries

Saving: £20,000 (per year)

Current service: This service provides library facilities for all persons in Moray across 11 libraries (some standalone and some within a larger facility such as a community school or community centre) and a mobile library.

The mobile library service currently undertakes 196 stops across Moray across its five week timetable, for some individuals it is the only in person social connection they may have during the week. The mobile service has in excess of 800 active borrowers and experienced approx. 6,500 of a footfall in 2022/23 with nearly 20,000 issues of books/materials.
Since the pandemic the function of the mobile library service has changed significantly, with the footfall exceeding some of our smaller rural libraries.

The mobile library service over recent years has provided the loan of library books, supported members of the public to connect digitally, supported our more rural vulnerable residents with resolving Council enquiries, provided school visits, provided social connections within rural communities to prevent isolation, provided valuable information and connections on activities, events and opportunities for individuals that may not have the means/connections to do so.

Proposal: retire the mobile library bus alongside development of an alternative service delivery model.  

Potential impact: A number of alternative options are being explored.

Stage one budget consultation – summary of findings

[Note: Moray Council planned to consider setting the council tax level as part of their financial planning, the recent announcement by the First Minister to freeze council tax for 2024/25 means that this option will not be available to the council next year].

Participants were asked to indicate how much they would be ‘Willing’ to see Council Tax rise, the choice they could make was between 3% and 15% @ 1% increments.

• When participants choices were averaged the increase to Council Tax was 5.9%.
• 60% of all participants indicated a ‘Willingness’ to see Council Tax rise by more than 3%, 40% of all participants indicated a rise of 6% or more and 20% of all participants a rise of 10% or more.
• There was variance across different groups, most noticeable within the 0-16 group where more than half were ‘Willing’ so see rises of 8% or more.

Participants were asked whether they agreed with Council Vision and priorities

• 96.0% agreed or somewhat agreed with our Vision and 94.5% with our Priorities.
• Of the three Priorities ‘Tackle Poverty and Inequality’ ranked 1st, ‘Build thriving, resilient, empowered communities’ ranked 2nd & Build a stronger, greener, vibrant economy ranked 3rd
• The 0-16 age group priorities differed from all other groups. ‘Tackle poverty and inequality’ remained the top priority, but they placed ‘Build a stronger, greener, vibrant economy’ before ‘Build thriving, resilient, empowered communities’.

Working with communities

• 76.2% of participants either strongly agreed or agreed that Moray Council should encourage and support people and communities to be resilient and self-sufficient. In contrast only 37.3% thought that resources should be targeted to those greatest in need

Participants were asked to indicate their willingness to increase service charges in specific areas (leisure and Sports, Secondary School meals, Household Garden waste permits & Burial charges to recover the cost of service)

• 60% of participants, or more, are willing to see some form of increase in charges but more so in Leisure & Sports and Burials than in Secondary School Meals and Garden Waste Permits. More than half of participants are willing to see moderate to significant increases within Leisure & Sports services.
• 41.4% of participants indicated they would be willing to accept the introduction of parking charges for areas not previously charged.
• Although Household Garden Waste Permits has the least ‘appetite’ for increase, almost 60% of participants showed willingness for some increase

Participants were asked to indicate their willingness to reduce spending/level of service delivery using a 0-4 scale (No change – Moderate – Significant)

• A least one third of participants indicated that they’d be willing to see some form of reduction across all service areas.
• A more significant proportion of participants indicated they’d be willing to see reductions in standard and level of service over those indicating no change within Catering services (54.9%), Economic Growth & Development Services  (Regulatory Services, Climate change and Economic Development) (63.7%), Housing services (55.8%), Communities services (57.0%) and Library facilities (54.9%). In the same service areas there was a greater willingness to see moderate – significant reductions, particularly within Economic Growth and Development Services  (Regulatory Services, Climate change and Economic Development) (47.2%).
• Half of participants indicated they’d be willing to see reductions within Mental Health and Drug & Alcohol services (49.8%) and almost a third (32.9%) would be willing to see Moderate – Significant reductions.
• Almost half of participants indicated they’d be willing to see reductions in Schools – Learning estate (46.2%) and Leisure Services (46.0%).
• The least willingness to see reductions (No change) was within Primary (63.7%), Secondary (63.3%), ASN Services (67.0%), Social Care services for adults (63.2%), Road repairs (60.5%), Roads winter maintenance (65.8%) and Bins & Recycling (60.4%).

Council leader summary statement - Previous statement

"I’d like to express my thanks and gratitude to everyone who took part in the first round of our budget engagement exercises in September 2023. We asked how far residents could tolerate increases to charges, changes to services and their take on what the future of Moray Council looks like.

With over 2,300 responses it provided us with useful feedback on where we need to get to as a Council and where our toughest decisions will come in the 2024/25 budget and beyond.

The summary of the first phase of consultation is below and has been considered as part of our first round of decision making, more detail on that can be found here.

In the coming weeks we’ll launch the next phase of engagement, this time on specific service proposals that we’d welcome more input from the public on. We’ll also be looking for service users to give us an insight into how they use leisure and library facilities and how changes to these services would impact them.

I encourage anyone with an interest in helping us create a sustainable budget for the future of Moray to take part and give their views. We’re especially keen to hear from younger people who want to make a difference in Moray.

The outcome of this exercise will inform the next stage of decision making by full council in December 2023."

Your councillors in Moray have been working in the background for over six months now to prepare a balanced budget for 2024/25. Like most of the 32 local authorities in Scotland, we’re doing this with the backdrop of severe financial constraints, including:

• Increasing demand for services
• Increased inflation
• Reduced funding from central government
• Increased supply costs and global supply chain issues
• Limited power to raise our own revenue
• Continuing pressure from a post-pandemic economy

All your elected members are working with the express intention that our communities get the services they need. But the context above sets out how increasingly challenging that has become.

Moray is at a crossroads and we need help to choose which way to turn, not all roads lead to home and they’re certainly not paved with gold.

We want to maintain a high standard of service for those we continue to provide but we need community input to help us work out what those services should be and how they can be delivered more efficiently. That’s where you can help shape the future of the council.

I urge you to read the information in the documents on this page setting out the context for our next budget. It represents a realistic picture of the council’s position, one that is shared by all other Scottish councils.

Every year successive councils in Moray say ‘we have tough decisions ahead’ and ‘none of these decisions are taken lightly’. And every year we mean it. You’ll have noticed services have already been reduced in many areas of delivery as we’ve made efficiency savings over the years. Unfortunately, all the indicators suggest that we have to make further serious changes to how the council operates, in order to balance the 2024/25 budget, so please take part in the consultation in any way you can. Your views are important and we’ll be guided by you in looking to the future of Moray Council.

What next?

Just like our household budgets, the Council is experiencing soaring inflation and rapidly rising energy, goods and service costs. For example, in March 2023 we had to budget an additional £1.5m for our annual gas and electricity, a rise of 42% on the previous year. Costs like these continue to rise. We also need to keep a small margin within our budget for cost rises we know are coming but we don’t know exactly how much they’ll be – for example increased staff pay awards (agreed nationally).

When setting the budget in 2023/24 we knew that savings of £20.8 million would be needed over the next two years. By the end of June 2023 we had identified £1.8m of savings, bringing our projected budget shortfalls to £18.2 million in 2024/25 and a further £0.8 million in 2025/26.

The documents below help explain the full situation and next steps – click into them to find out more.

Service status posters