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Apr 2020

Politics

Harrogate council's cabinet to hold first-ever virtual meeting

Published: 29 Apr 2020, 10:13 BST

Updated: 29 Apr 2020, 15:14 BST

by Connor Creaghan

Councils have been allowed to meet virtually since the government temporarily changed the rules at the start of April.

Senior staff Harrogate Borough Council could be in line for a pay rise.

Harrogate Borough Council's cabinet will hold its first-ever virtual meeting next week on Wednesday, May 6.

All committee, council, and cabinet meetings had been suspended since the coronavirus lockdown in March.

This is because of laws which said meetings at which decisions are made, and votes taken, had to happen face to face with elected members all at the same location.

The government temporarily changed the rules to enable council meetings to take place from April 4 and other councils across the country have been taking advantage of that.

Now Harrogate's councillors will use Microsoft Teams for the 5.30pm meeting, and it will be combined with a live stream so the meeting can be followed on the council's YouTube channel.

Graham Swift, cabinet member with responsibility for democratic services, said:

“We have managed to conduct business continuously throughout the pandemic but larger decision making that engages council, cabinet or committee had to be postponed. However, now that the government has introduced new legislation to permit remote meetings, we can get back to conducting our committee decisions collectively, and in public.I am grateful to our democratic services and ICT teams for the work they’ve done to make this happen."