Magical mystery powers to find money

Sir, – Abracadabra!! The powers-that-be at Moray Council have again come up with their mystical, magical powers to pluck no bunny from the hat but, hey presto, a "surplus of money" they didn’t know existed!

It beggars belief that before cutting services to the elderly, disabled and most vulnerable in our society, the closure of many facilities etc, the accounts were not checked thoroughly to see if any of these could have been avoided After all, it was £3.6 million – no mean sum of money.

I was even more intrigued to read that this would not be used to reinstate any of these services but to be used for flood defences, and although I applaud this, being a third time flood victim also, this itself should have been properly negotiated with the Scottish Government and would have rendered this proposal unnecessary.

Why, also, at a time of severe cuts in the public domain, was it not found necessary to put on hold their own plans for their new headquarters? It’s galling to see the extent of the renovation at this time when we lesser mortals are expected to pull our belts in. Perhaps they will be good enough to furnish us with the full amount of monies incurred in this project and how much do they intend to recoup from the sale of the buildings they have vacated or will vacate, and to what use will they put this money?

I quote two adages that apply to Moray Council: "think before you act" and "practise what you preach". – Yours etc,

Helen Sinclair

Leuchars Drive, Elgin.

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