Telford & Wrekin Council to hold meetings remotely and stream live

Ordinarily, the law requires councillors to be physically present at meetings but the new Coronavirus Act makes provisions for remote meetings using video or telephone conferencing technology.

Telford & Wrekin’s first ‘virtual’ meeting due to be held will be a planning committee meeting, at 10am on Tuesday, April 28.

Participants and contributors to the virtual meetings, such as members of the public submitting planning applications or those submitting questions to ask to full council, will be invited to the virtual conference.

The meetings will be broadcast live and will be available on demand to the public on the council’s YouTube and Twitter channels which are usually used to stream the council’s cabinet and full council meetings.

'Key council business'

Councillor Rae Evans, cabinet member for council finance and governance, said: “Although these are not normal times, there is still key council business that has to continue.

“Our cabinet and full council and committee such as planning will meet, albeit remotely during the lockdown period. These meetings which are normally held in public will continue to be publicly accessible online.

“Since the lockdown began, council members and staff have conducted business from home, meeting ‘virtually’.

"As a modern and forward-thinking council we are always looking for innovative ways of doing things and the situation we find ourselves in provides us with further opportunity to try something new.

"We are now applying that experience and technology to our public meetings as we continue in our mission to invest, protect and care to create a better borough.”

Telford & Wrekin Council’s meeting dates and papers can be found online, at democracy.telford.gov.uk.

To view the meetings live or on demand visit Twitter or youtube.com/user/TelfordWrekin.