Moray Council warns of harder budget times ahead

Moray Council has warned of tougher times ahead as its annual budget was set.

The local authority set a total revenue budget of £197.9m for 2015-16.

Council leader Stewart Cree said: "We must make best use of this period of respite to put us in a position to address the forthcoming challenges."

He said it was expected savings of £14.9m would still have to be found over the following two years.

He told the councillors: "This may be regarded as a light touch budget and in many ways this is true.

"However, it is not intended that it should delay or defer difficult decisions that we will have to make."

Meanwhile, Aberdeenshire Council plans to cut spending on road maintenance, street lighting and care of the elderly in a bid to make £3.6m of savings as part of its budget for the year ahead.

And a special meeting of the full Orkney Islands Council decided that £81.8m should be spent running council services in 2015-16.