Coronavirus: Virtual council meetings to be held in Peterborough

Virtual meetings at Peterborough City Council are set to begin next week.
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Council meetings will now be conducted using the Zoom software platform. They will be livestreamed on the council’s YouTube channel for members of the public and the media to watch, with the exception of confidential items which will be discussed in private as usual.

Public questions can be submitted in written form for all Full Council meetings and will be published on the council’s website prior to the meeting taking place. Meetings will be recorded to allow people to watch them afterwards if they cannot log on during the event itself.

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This protocol will allow the council to continue to conduct the vast majority of its democratic decisions remotely while adhering to the Government’s social distancing guidelines -and follows legislation which came into force on April 4.

Peterborough Town HallPeterborough Town Hall
Peterborough Town Hall

A review of decisions has been prepared for the next three months and the urgency of each decision will be marked as either high, medium or low – only decisions marked as high or medium will be taken to council meetings. This document does not include monitoring or information items, as these will be circulated to councillors via email.

Training is now taking place with councillors to help them get used to the new system and the first meeting will be Cabinet at 2pm on Monday, May 11.

Cllr John Holdich, leader of Peterborough City Council, said: “It will be a very new way of working for us all, but we’ve had excellent training on what to do and we are looking forward to continuing to hold council meetings in the public domain during Covid-19.”

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A similar process started at Cambridgeshire County Council at the end of last month. Council meetings in Cambridgeshire are also handled by Cambridge City Council, East Cambridgeshire District Council, South Cambridgeshire District Council, Fenland District Council and Huntingdonshire District Council and they will run their own system for meetings.