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10
Oct 2021
County council considers return to face-to-face meetings
North Yorkshire County Council officials are to consider making councillors return to face-to-face meetings.
Authority bosses are considering the move despite online meetings leading to councillors claiming 131,338 miles fewer miles a year in expenses.
The county council is among a small number of local authorities which is continuing to hold its public decision-making meetings and debates online following the easing of pandemic restrictions.
The regulations which allowed virtual committee meetings to make decisions is no longer in force and the council’s leadership has repeatedly said it wants flexibility to hold some meetings online and others in person.
However, the government has given no indication whether it would support fresh legislation to enable local authorities to decide how they hold their meetings.
The council has calculated the pandemic measure led to 131,338 miles less mileage being claimed by councillors, saving £55,221, and an estimated 668 fewer working days being spent travelling to meetings.
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The authority, which is working towards becoming carbon neutral by 2030, has concluded resulting annual carbon dioxide emissions savings of online meetings add up to nearly 37 tonnes – the equivalent of taking about 70 cars off the road.
Nevertheless, it is understood some leading councillors are unhappy with continuing to burden the authority’s chief executive, Richard Flinton, with the responsibility for all decisions, particularly ones that are politically sensitive.
An officer’s report to the executive will say that it will be up to the executive to make a recommendation to a meeting of the full council in November.
It says:
The issue has come under the spotlight just two weeks after the Government’s Covid-19 Response: Autumn and Winter Plan 2021 was published, which stated if the NHS comes under sustained pressure the government would advise people to work from home.
Upper Dales Cllr Yvonne Peacock, who faces a two-hour return trip to attend meetings at County Hall in Northallerton, said online broadcasting of remote meetings had benefited residents in her area.
She said:
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