Council to meet again next week

It is just over two months since the Powys County Council Cabinet last met publicly on March 3.

The last meeting on March 24 was postponed due to the lockdown measures announced by the UK Government on March 23.

The members will receive briefing by chief executive Caroline Turner on the “business critical” activities being carried out by the authority during the pandemic crisis.

They will also receive a report from Head of Finance, Jane Thomas, on how the coronavirus crisis is affecting the council’s budget for 2020/21.

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During the last month decisions have been made by Cabinet under delegated powers.

But since April 22 ,the Local Authorities (Coronavirus) (Meetings) (Wales) Regulations 2020 has been in force.

This makes changes to the Local Government Act Wales allowing meetings to take place by remote attendance.

English local authorities had been given the powers since April 4.

Meetings at other local authorities in Wales have now started taking place.

Welsh Government Housing and Local Government minister, Julie James, explained: “The regulations make temporary provision in relation to local authority meetings and for public and press access to these meetings during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“They provide flexibility to enable local authorities to operate safely, effectively and lawfully, while retaining the principles of openness and accountability to the public.

“This includes enabling meetings to be conducted on the basis of full or partial remote attendance and by making provision about the electronic publishing of certain documents.”

In March, the council had led Wales by becoming the first authority to hold public meetings by remote.

The Democratic Services Committee and the Finance Panel both met remotely by using Microsoft Teams before the lockdown.

This was made possible by a change in the council's standing orders, which allowed meetings to be held remotely.

At the last Full Council meeting on March 5, Councillors voted through a motion brought forward by Councillor Pete Roberts to suspend the prohibition on remote meetings for six months.

But legal restrictions in place meant that changes were needed at national lever to allow meetings such as full council, cabinet and planning to take place.