The report of the City Solicitor (Document “H”) presents an update on delivering meetings in the democratic decision making structure following the meeting of Full Council held on 8 September 2020.

Recommended –

That the report be noted.

                                                                        (Adrian Tumber – 07970 412150)

Resolved-

That the report be noted.

                                                            (Adrian Tumber – 07970 412150)

The report of the City Solicitor (Document “H”) presented an update on delivering meetings in the democratic decision making structure following the meeting of Full Council held on 8 September 2020.

It was reported that the delivery of the remote Extraordinary meeting of Council necessitated considerable preparation. This included a preparatory session for the Lord Mayor; two preparatory sessions for all Members of Council and individual support provided for Members by the Council’s IT Service.

Members were informed that a feature of the Extraordinary meeting of Council was the first use by this Council of electronic voting. Officers supporting the meeting were able to monitor the electronic voting to ensure that it was working correctly.

It was reported that the Council’s IT Service provided exemplary support to Members in the preparation for the Extraordinary meeting of Council supporting councillors with any connectivity issues both before and during the meeting.

As requested at the last meeting of this Committee Public-i did hold data on both those who were viewing live streams as committee/panel meetings were taking place and those who view the archive recordings of those meetings.

A snapshot of the data for the four week period ending 24 August 2020 was detailed at paragraph 4.1 of the report. It was clear that the public were accessing meetings in the Council’s decision making structure in larger numbers through the meetings being held remotely.

It was reported that two further meetings of the Council were planned for November to consider devolution and February to consider the budget.

In response to a Members question in relation to the number of Councillors that actually attended and how many voted it was reported that there was evidence that the number of Councillors who participated in the voting was 78, 6 Councillors were absent, not clear why 6 Councillors did not participate in the vote.

A Member commented that a full debate could not take place at a remote meeting. In response it was reported that pre arranged speakers does take place at ordinary meetings and would be something that needed looking into for remote meetings as it was not straight forward.

It was suggested that as the first Council meeting held remotely was successful could consideration be given to resuming ordinary Council meetings remotely as other authorities did. In response it was reported that ordinary meetings of Council and how other authorities conducted their business remotely was being monitored but there would be technological challenges of delivering Member Question Time.

There was a suggestion that the way members voted ie for or against should have been announced.

The  Chair emphasised the excellent service provided by IT and Governance Officers but it was crucial that all  Members became IT literate which would enable them to undertake remote meetings successfully.

Resolved-

That the report be noted.