Council to pilot virtual meetings
Virtual council meetings are being piloted in South Lanarkshire to allow councillors to get back to representing their constituents directly.
Already, two meetings have been held via Microsoft Teams, however members of the public will not be able to view the proceedings.
Since March, all council meetings have been cancelled in response to the coronavirus pandemic, with emergency delegated powers used to keep council business moving.
South Lanarkshire Council committed to reviewing the situation at the end of May and they have now said “a small number” will be taken online before the summer recess in July.
On Monday morning, June 1, councillors from North and South Lanarkshire held a meeting of the Lanarkshire Valuation Joint Board via Microsoft Teams before South Lanarkshire’s Planning Local Review Body met on the same platform in the afternoon.
The council have said there are no plans to broadcast the virtual meetings but the papers will still be available a week prior as normal.
Chief executive of South Lanarkshire Council, Cleland Sneddon, said: “we have agreed with political group leaders that the council will operate a small number of virtual committee and forum meetings using Microsoft Teams during June.
“This is as a pilot approach to enable elected members to participate directly in the democratic process.
“It will include a full planning committee to be held on June 23.
“At this point there are no proposals to broadcast the meetings.
“However, the agenda and papers will be published as normal in advance of the meetings and any decisions reached will also be published through the usual council channels.”
Meetings which are not held virtually will still be decided through the use of emergency delegated powers by the chief executive in consultation with the five political group leaders before the situation is again reviewed at the end of July.