Andover mayor says council virtual meetings a good idea andoveradvertiser.co.uk - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from andoveradvertiser.co.uk Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Once the Local Authorities and Police and Crime Panels (Coronavirus) (Flexibility of Local Authority and Police and Crime Panel Meetings) (England and Wales) Regulations 2020, SI 2020/392, which permitted local authority meetings to be held remotely (in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic), ceased to apply, such meetings had to take place at a single, specified geographical location; attending a meeting at such a location meant physically going to it; and being ‘present’ at such a meeting involved physical presence at that location. Accordingly, the Administrative Court, in dismissing a judicial review claim, ruled that Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government had been correct, in November 2016 and July 2019, to say that primary legislation would be required to allow local authority ‘meetings’ under the Local Government Act 1972 to take place remotely. The court considered that it was unlikely that Parliament had intended an updating construction to a
Gargrave Village Hall NEXT week’s planning committee meeting of Craven District Council will take place at the council offices in Skipton after emergency legislation to allow online meetings came to an end. It will also mean the annual council meeting on May 25 will have to take place in the larger venue of Gargrave Village Hall. A legal challenge by Hertfordshire County Council, Lawyers in Local Government and the Association of Democratic Services Officers failed to achieve an extension of the legislation, which meant a return to physical meetings from last Friday. Councillor Richard Foster, leader of Craven District Council, said: “It is disappointing that councils have been instructed that face to face meetings must resume, and that we are unable to continue holding remote meetings. However, we have been given no choice in the matter. Therefore, face to face council meetings will resume.
Councils sidestep rules through ‘informal’ remote meetings
Some councils are drawing up plans to sidestep legal requirements for them to hold face to face meetings from now on by first holding informal remote meetings of councillors, then allowing a smaller group of elected members to ratify those decisions in person.
In order to limit face to face member contact while the coronavirus pandemic continues, councils are taking steps to flex the rules which dictate they must now return to meeting face to face, following a high court judgement on the matter last month.
A subsequent decision by judges quashed hopes that members of the public could be banned from attending, although their numbers can be capped in accordance with health and safety guidelines.