Local MP responds to Moray library closure plans

Aberdeenshire North and Moray East MP Seamus Logan has criticised the chaotic response from Moray Conservatives who wrongly announced that the Tory-led local council were dropping plans to close seven libraries across the region.

Commenting, Seamus Logan MP said: “The Conservatives have performed so many u-turns and backflips on this question of potential library closures across Moray that it seems their local HQ celebrated far too soon in announcing that these seven libraries would stay open.

“To add insult to injury in this failure of communication, certain Tory Councillors also seemed to think that closures were off the table. 

“Now it’s clear that this is not the case, that the corks were popped rather prematurely, and that Moray Council is still to make a final decision on this important matter.”

The current consultation on the future of Fochabers, Lossiemouth, Burghead, Cullen, Dufftown, Keith and Tomintoul libraries is due to be completed by the end of January 2025 when the formal decision will be announced by the Conservative-led Council.

Seamus Logan added: “I have made it clear that as the local MP I strongly disagree with the Council’s approach to library closures.

“These well-loved public resources should not be under threat. Libraries are absolutely vital to our local communities, for children, for vulnerable groups such as the elderly and disabled and for access to a wealth of literature for local people and its these very local people who have made their opposition to closures well known.

“The Scottish Government has just allocated more than £1 billion in the Budget to local authorities – my advice to Moray Council would be for them to use some of these funds to keep the libraries open to the public.

“In the meantime, I hope the Council will do its upmost to reassure local people that, unlike their party HQ in Moray, they will put libraries before politics and that this kind of amateur and unprofessional mix up will not occur again.”