- Change theme
Somerset County Council to Continue Virtual Meetings
Somerset County Council's virtual meetings to continue until at least November due to Covid-19 pandemic.
09:10 03 August 2020
Somerset County Council has confirmed that they will continue holding virtual meetings until at least November for the safety and wellbeing of councillors and members of the public during the Covid-19 crisis.
The county council and Somerset's four district councils, switched to virtual meetings as they heed new Covid-19 guidelines issued by the central government in spring. The council said it will continue to hold meetings using Microsoft Teams and then live-stream them via its YouTube channel. However, it signifies its intention in 'hybrid' meetings where meetings are still live-streamed online but a small number of people will be allowed to attend in person.
Monitoring officer Scott Wooldridge said: "Democratic meetings in a meeting venue are still not allowed during the emergency, and we need to continue to use the virtual meeting regulations to support holding democratic meetings.
"Whilst technology and support exists to enable virtual democratic meetings to take place, there remains a need to manage expectations as the council's resources are still prioritised towards the Covid-19 emergency response.
"Consequently, it is not considered possible for the next few months that committees can fully return to their usual level of business and lines of enquiry."
Councillor Jane Lock added: "I welcome this move towards getting back to normal - whatever the new normal may look like. I look forward to moving towards hybrid meetings."
She added: "Not everyone can access YouTube. We have to understand that connectivity and access to anything technical cannot be a given."