Councillors allowed to join some meetings remotely

Councillors will be able to join some meetings virtually

Remote attendance at committee meetings will be allowed in "extenuating circumstances" by the Isle of Man's largest local authority.

Douglas Council backed recommendations to allow one person to join specific meetings using a council-issued iPad.

Councillor Andrew Bentley said the change would help "speed up" council business.

If a meeting did not have the minimum number of members required present it currently had to be delayed by a month, he said.

Mr Bentley told the Local Democracy Reporting Service the change had become necessary since a cut in councillor numbers meant three out of four committee members had to take part for a meeting to go ahead.

The number of councillors was reduced from 18 to 12 at the last local authority general election, leading to a cut in committee member numbers from five to four.

Andrew Bentley said the move would help to speed up Council business

Mr Bentley said it only needed "two people to not be available and the committee would be postponed for a month".

The change was to "allow a single member to attend the meeting remotely, if they're away on business, say, and they had access to the relevant communication equipment", he said.

"Then they could take part and that would make the meeting quorate and speed up the council business," he added.

The report said any request to attend remotely would have to be submitted to the chief executive at least one working day before the scheduled meeting.

However, councillors would not be encouraged to join meetings remotely while on holiday as members should "not feel expected to attend meetings during their annual leave, and also as council devices should not be taken away for reasons of privacy and security", the report added.