ELGIN’S controversial western link road has been dropped from Moray Council’s capital spending plan, along with the accompanying new rail crossing.

Councillors voted 13-11 in favour of pulling the project to save the authority £8.5m. It followed a warning from officials to members that they could not afford to complete all building projects on the council's wish list.

The plan for the new route, which divided local opinion, was to connect New Elgin with the A96 Aberdeen to Inverness road, creating a new crossing over the railway line and opening up land for housing development.

As it is a reduction in government grant and increased costs for providing services, has created a £6m hole in next year’s council revenue budget and a recurring shortfall that is projected to lead to £14 in the following year.

Conservative councillor Douglas Ross moved the motion, seconded by SNP group leader Gary Coull, to drop the multi-million pound project, which was still supported by most of the ruling Independent/Tory administration.

At the meeting councillors were formally notified that their financial position was contrary to their statutory role to maintain a sustainable budget, and this would need to be addressed during the next two years.

The £8.5m project was due to come before the planning and regulatory service committee later this year.

The new crossing was designed to cope with the projected growth in traffic numbers over the next ten years.

Council leader Stewart Cree, who voted to keep the project in the plan, said it would be a grave error to abandon the project that had been approved as a council priority.

He was supported by fellow Independent councillor John Cowe, who said the existing crossing over the Inverness-Aberdeen railway was already at 103 per cent capacity, and that the new crossing would have had major benefits.

“The road would have generated an estimated £6m in council tax revenues, and a potential boost to the local economy of £100m,” he said.

He added that a new crossing would have to built at some stage, it would now simply cost more.