Politicians and local campaigners fighting to save almost half the public libraries in Moray from closure, will hear today whether the council's decision to axe them is consistent with equality legislation.
The Equalities and Human Rights Commission considered the issue yesterday and wrote to those who had complained, outlining the commissioner's view. A statement will be issued this morning but a spokesman stressed the commission was not a judicial body and could only consider whether the council met its legal duties under the relevant legislation in assessing the needs of groups, such as the disabled, before coming to a decision. Opposition SNP councillors on Moray Council and others had reported the Conservative/Independent administration to the Equalities and Human Rights Commission following its decision last month to close seven of the 15 libraries.
The administration voted to proceed despite a 150-page Equalities Impact Assessment (EIA) from council officials, which recommended three be saved because of the impact on the elderly, disabled and families with young children.
These were Dufftown, Cullen and Burghead. But by 13 votes to 10, councillors opted to stick to their original budget proposal made earlier this year.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article