A COUNCIL leader has resigned after he failed to push through a controversial rural schools closure plan.

Allan Wright yesterday quit as the leader of the Conservative/Independent administration at Moray Council after failing to win a crucial vote on plans to close up to 10 rural primary schools and one secondary.

Instead, members voted 16 to eight to have moratorium on any rural school closures for five years, including Milne's High in Fochabers, which had been under threat. They also agreed that none of their secondaries would close.

Sandy Longmuir, chair of the Scottish Rural Schools Network said other council leaders considering embarking on a programme of school closures, should take notice of Mr Wright's fate.

Mr Wright had believed the authority had too many small schools in a poor state of repair and wanted to use a report by Edinburgh-based consultants Caledonian Economics, as the basis for a programme of modernisation. This would have included a significant number of schools merging.

Mr Longmuir said that what had happened in Moray was highly-significant for the rest of rural Scotland.

He said that despite recent legislation to protect rural schools, he had been "near despair" in the last few months.

"My big fear was that Caledonian Economics had been setting themselves up as to 'go to guys' to distance elected councillors and officials from the public, in order to get rural schools shut. They have been used by Highland Council in Wick and now on Skye to do exactly that. The fear was that they would be successful, even to a limited degree in Moray. That could have then spread to places like Argyll, the Borders, Dumfries and Galloway. Caledonian Economics had to be stopped and yesterday they were stopped in a spectacular fashion in Moray."

He said his initial reaction was to ponder whether Caledonian Economics should return the £60,000 they were paid by Moray Council "for no purpose whatsoever".

There had been vociferous campaigns of opposition in the Moray communities where local primary schools had been earmarked for closure. The suggestion that Milne's High in Fochabers should close had also outraged hundreds parents.

After resigning Mr Wright said of his fellow councillors: "They chickened out again as they have done now for the fourth time in Moray. They have refused to grasp the nettle that needs to be grasped. I think there were opportunities there which have now been missed and I regret that. I think it is a wrong decision at the end of the day, and I think it is a decision that Moray will eventually come to regret."

A council spokesman said that the consultants had won the contract through a standard procurement.

Meanwhile, councillors in Shetland have rejected plans to shut two small primary schools in Northmavine.