Council meetings to be a mix of online and face-to-face after pandemic

This would also save time and the cost of travelling expenses of having councillors travel to and from Powys County Council’s headquarters in Llandrindod Wells.

At a meeting of the Cabinet on Tuesday, it was revealed that further reports will be brought in front of councillors for a decision on the new ways of working

Head of transformation and communications, Emma Palmer, explained that after a few teething troubles, councillors had got the hang of online meetings.

She also pointed out that the Cabinet meeting was taking place online.

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Ms Palmer said: “We’re embracing digital technology and there are a number of benefits we have learned.”

“Cabinet will be asked to endorse the next steps which include papers being provided on the future operation of council meetings, and a potential new operating model on how we deliver frontline services.”

Council Leader, Councillor Rosemarie Harris, said that some “big decisions” needed to be made in the next few weeks, which includes school transformation.

Councillor Harris said: “We can see that there are opportunities of change on the horizon.

“Some of our staff have worked from home right the way the pandemic and will continue to do so.”

She added that the working normal after the pandemic could see staff “blend” their week with working from home and spending some time in the office.

Benefits

The Recovery Planning report said that the benefits of holding virtual meetings include:

• Shorter, more focussed meetings

• Saving of travelling time and cost for councillors and officers

• Better public access to meetings, as only full council and cabinet meeting have been streamed live online before the pandemic.

Powys became a trailblazer authority for holding online meetings even before the pandemic and has been praised by the Welsh Audit Office for doing so.

Due to the foresight of Councillor Pete Roberts, a motion was supported at a council meeting on March 5 ,which allowed some meetings to be held online.

Meetings of the democratic services, and audit committee were held online before the UK lockdown on March 23,

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.

Powys County Council meetings re-started on May 5.

Under the regulations the authority has until December 31 to hold an annual meeting.