An overwhelming majority of local authorities want to be able to reintroduce virtual technology for hybrid council meetings, with the fear that they will find it harder to recruit and retain councillors, according the Local Government Association (LGA).
It has raised the issue two years after the Government closed its call for evidence on the issue, and highlighted results of own survey of councils’ attitudes.
This comes after a period of more than a year in 2020-21 in which the Government relaxed the rules on physical attendance at statutory meetings because of the Covid-19 lockdown, paving the way for a widespread use of virtual meeting technology.
The rule was re-imposed, following which the then Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government began a consultation on the issue of virtual meetings, and the LGA called last year for them to be made permissible.
The LGA said its survey – which brought responses from around a third of England’s local authorities – revealed that almost nine in 10 councils said they had councillors who would make use of virtual attendance options to obtain a better work-life balance. 84% had councillors with work commitments who would benefit from hybrid meetings and 64% thought those with childcare commitments would also take advantage of the option.
Councillors stepping down
In addition, one in 10 had a councillor who had stepped down over the past year due to the requirement to attend meetings in person.
No council wanted to hold fully virtual meetings but the “vast majority” wanted a hybrid option.
Previous LGA research found that when hybrid meetings were carried out during the pandemic it had increased public attendance and created greater engagement in the local democratic process.
The organisation’s vice chair, Cllr Joe Harris, said: “Councillors are restricted by law to attend council meetings in person, which can deter a range of people including full time professionals, parents of young children, carers, workers and disabled people from stepping forward to represent their communities.
“The Government should provide councils, who know their communities best, with the flexibility they need to decide how to use hybrid technologies in their meetings.
“People’s expectations have changed due to improvements in virtual meeting technologies bought on by the pandemic. Many people now use hybrid meeting technologies every day in their work life and so there should be no reason why this cannot be used by councils across the country.
“This will help to drive up engagement in local democracy and ensure that we have a diverse range of councillors throughout our communities.”
NALC support
The call has come with the support of the National Association of Local Councils. Its chair, Cllr Keith Stevens, said: "We need to make it easier, not harder, for people to participate in civic life and get involved in their local communities. Giving local (parish and town) councils the flexibility to hold online and hybrid council meetings is a great place to start and should be decided locally and not in Downing Street."
