Town and borough authorities to stage Atherstone's first 'virtual' meetings in local government history

PUBLIC TO GET A 'SAY' AS USUAL IN TOWN COUNCIL'S ZOOM-DRIVEN DEBATE

TECHNOLOGY will kickstart Atherstone's local government accountability to its citizens back into life later this month.

Both the town's civic powerhouses are planning 'virtual' meetings in the space of 24 hours in a bold bid to circumvent the catastrophic effect of Covid measures on the district.

First to conduct a Zoom meeting will be the Atherstone-based North Warwickshire Borough Council on Wednesday, May 20.

The South Street offices will be a mere bystander as the town's twin civic leader – Councillor David Wright – chairs his, and the local authority's, first full council meeting to be held outside the civic headquarters.

It will be streamed live to members.

Despite not being able to attend, members of the public will be present – in name at least.

The normal session is to be included in the high-tech format of the meeting with residents able to table questions in advance, which will then be read out.

"The meeting will take a slightly different course but members of the public will still be able to submit their questions, even though they won't be able to actually take part in the virtual format," council leader David Wright told Nub News.

He admitted there was unlikely to be "too much" of substance to discuss as the priority over the last two months has been to keep vital services going against the backdrop of the coronavirus pandemic.

Certainly planning applications have taken a back seat in the crisis. The meeting agenda is expected to come out in the next few days, he added. Some 24 hours later, Atherstone Town Council will break with centuries of tradition to conduct an annual meeting in a virtual world. However, the scheduled curtain raiser to a new civic year is still planning to allow "public participation". The normal citizen session will be staged as a virtual Zoom event – with attendees at the meeting asked to get 'joining instructions' ahead of the 7pm start on Thursday, May 21. "The public is very welcome and how to 'attend' will be made clear when the agenda is published on our website," added Cllr Wright. "It will be a question of passing details onto our clerks." On Monday, members had a 20-minute run-through to test the technology which is understood to have gone well – with the "vast majority finding it very helpful", added the leader.