End to remote meetings “disappointing”

MANY councillors and staff in Westbury were disappointed to hear that the council and its committees are required to return to face to face meetings.

The High Court ruled at the end of April that remote council meetings should stop from 7th May. 

Town clerk, Deborah Urch, told White Horse News, “This is following the expiry of the Local Authorities and Police and Crime Panels (Coronavirus) (Flexibility of Local Authority and Police and Crime Panel Meetings) (England and Wales) Regulations 2020 and the government’s decision to not extend these regulations. 

“The court case challenged that the LGA 1972 reference to the place of meetings could be reasonably interpreted to include a remote meeting place. The high court ruled that the existing legislation does not extend to remote meetings.

“The town council has seen an increase in public interest and engagement in council meetings since we moved to remote meetings. At the next meeting of the Town Council on the 17th May, we will ask the town council if it wants to continue to livestream meetings to the public. We will also ask if councillors wish to continue to join working groups remotely for non-decision making meetings where the public are not formally invited.”