Councillors to remain apart until next spring

Councillors in Argyll and Bute will go a full year without meeting in person after plans to continue virtual meetings until April were rubber-stamped.

But council chiefs have been urged to bring the technology they use up to date as technical hitches have regularly affected meetings held remotely.

Councillors were affected by connectivity issues during the meeting of the full council on Thursday September 24, including depute provost Roddy McCuish, who was chairing the meeting.

Councillor Gordon Blair also lost his connection during a vote on the council’s submission to the Boundary Commission, although his vote would not have changed the outcome.

The normal schedule of council and committee meetings will now resume – including the powerful policy and resources committee, which hasn’t met since February.

The temporary ‘business continuity committee’, which has dealt with the council’s most urgent business in the absence of regular meetings during the Covid-19 pandemic, will be suspended.

Councillor Rory Colville, who missed the start of the meeting, said: ‘This morning the problem was at my end, with the lack of broadband width. If I use video conferencing I will lose my voice.’

All the council and committee meetings which have been held during lockdown have used the Skype platform, with councillors speaking via audio link only.

Despite a view among some elected members that an earlier assessment would be preferable, a motion by council leader Robin Currie to hold a review in April was carried by 21 votes to 12.