Extra council meetings scheduled after concerns of ‘democratic deficit’ during pandemic

Hartlepool Borough Council in March had to cancel or postpone all meetings scheduled for the foreseeable future due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Technology is now in place for the authority to hold meetings remotely via Microsoft Teams, with an extraordinary meeting of council streamed last week.

The schedule of Full Council meetings for the coming 2020/21 municipal year has now been agreed, with three additional meetings being added to what was initially proposed.

Coun Christopher Akers-Belcher had initially called for the extra meetings of full council, taking the total number planned for the year to seven, after the council was left unable to hold meetings for several months.

He said: “I’ve spoken to both the leader and the deputy leader and also a number of other members and there is a strength of feeling there is democratic deficit with regards to decision making at the moment.

“It would be an additional three meetings and it would allow for at least updates on what is happening across the council.

“It would allow for greater opportunities for council to engage in the democratic process.”

The extra dates will see Full Council meetings held on July 30, October 29 and January 28, along with the originally planned dates of September 17, December 17, February 25 and May 25, which will be the annual council meeting.

It was also confirmed there would be no annual council meeting in 2020, as there had been no request to hold one and no major change in the political balance due to elections being cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic.

This means committee chairs and vice chairs will also stay the same for the coming year.

Council chiefs added any decisions taken while they have been unable to hold meetings due to Covid-19 will be reported to the Finance and Policy Committee and published online.

Meetings of council committees going forward are to be scheduled in consultation with the respective chairs, and will be held when decisions are needed.

Coun Marjorie James had raised concerns over the amount of time it has taken for the council to start remote meetings.

However Gill Alexander, chief executive at the council, said several steps had to be taken before they began and they were completed as quickly as possible.

She said: “It’s been a really complex process that required training for members, required working out how we’ll get WiFi and other solutions, and it required writing an operating procedure for the holding of meetings of council remotely.

“In the context of everything else officers were having to deal with in what’s been an all consuming few months I think they worked as hard as they possibly could to get there.”

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