MID Devon District Council is to ask the government to allow councillors to vote online and bring England in line with the rest of the UK.

English councils were allowed to hold meetings virtually during the height of the pandemic until May of this year, when the temporary legislation ended.

Members now have to be present physically to be able to vote but can still contribute to discussions remotely.

Neighbouring East Devon District Council is currently getting around it by holding virtual meetings that only reach "indicative decisions".

It then passes to the chief executive or senior officers to make the final decision, although they are assumed to back whatever councillors decide.

In a motion to lobby the government for a change in the rules at a full council meeting in October, Councillor Nikki Woollatt (Independent, Cullompton North) said England was being “left behind” with Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland now allowing its councils to meet and vote remotely.

“Whilst we will always want councillors to be able to meet in person, there needs to be the provision for some members to be online, for example if they are vulnerable, self-isolating, have caring responsibilities or difficulties with transport. It is also in line with reducing carbon emissions to zero by 2030,” the motion said.

“Our hybrid system of meetings are currently working well, but non-voting members attending online are not currently allowed to be recorded as having attended even though they can raise issues and contribute to the debate!

“Equally it would be very useful if voting members of a committee could have the flexibility to attend online if they find themselves in circumstances preventing physical attendance. This would help to reduce the risk of meetings not having enough people present.”

Speaking in favour, Councillor Colin Slade (Conservative, Lowman) said it was an “eminently sensible” idea and hoped the government would listen to their views.

He added that it would be “good to see some consistency” with some confusion surrounding the policy currently.

However, a number of councillors were against the idea and voted to reject it.

Councillor Chris Daw (Conservative, Cranmore) was concerned about the lack of guidelines, “otherwise I could easily say ‘I can’t come into a meeting here’ and be at home.”

Councillor Andrew Moore (Conservative, Clare and Shuttern) said remote meetings were “too informal,” referring to when a councillor briefly vanished from his webcam to “turn the hob off” during a recent meeting when he was questioning Cllr Moore.

“Important meetings get the same priority as lunch preparation or Amazon Prime delivery or whatever. At least he was open about it. Who knows what goes on behind that black, secretive, silent box on the screen marked ‘Councillor X’.

“Plus, this approach makes it too easy to stay at home for any number of genuine and spurious reasons, and that takes away the importance of this council and its committees.”

Cllr Moore added that councillors “discuss and vote on serious matters affecting (the people in our wards), from major policy to use of their money” and it should be taken seriously without potential distractions at home.

Leader of the council Councillor Bob Deed (Independent, Cadbury) said that although he would write to the government if instructed, he was against the motion: “We need to get back to where we were before the pandemic as soon as possible.

“The way that we worked before was that we met in a room and we had a discourse and it worked exceptionally well. I do not understand why that cannot happen again, and therefore I won’t be able to support this motion.”

But Councillor Jim Cairney (Lib Dem, Boniface) stressed the risk still posed by Covid.

He said: “I feel that if we only have to speak to each other and have to be in a room and one person’s got Covid and the rest of us catch it, I think that’s just a little bit flippant with how we treat people.”

Councillor Clive Eginton (Conservative, Taw Vale) also supported the motion but wanted there to be a differentiation on the public attendance records between attending meetings in-person and remotely, saying: “Otherwise we could have a situation where somebody, to all intents and purposes, has a 100 per cent attendance record but in fact never ever attends a meeting here at Phoenix House.”

Councillor John Downes (Lib Dem, Boniface) believes the council should “make use of the technology we’ve now got in place,” adding: “For somebody who gets pinged and has to self-isolate, I think it’s wrong that that person should be excluded from a meeting when we have the technology for them to attend.”

The motion was narrowly supported in a vote, meaning leader Bob Deed will now write to Michael Gove, the  local government secretary of state, to call for a change to the rules.

Ollie Heptinstall

LDRS