In-person council meetings perverse, says leader

Rotherham Council leader Chris Read said he believed in-person meetings were unnecessary with high Covid rates

A council leader has called for a return to remote meetings amid spiralling numbers of Covid-19 cases.

Rotherham's Chris Read said it was "perverse" that meetings took place in person despite government guidance urging people to work from home due to the rise in the Omicron variant.

Legislation which allowed council meetings to be held virtually from April 2020 expired in May 2021.

A government spokesperson said councils should ensure meetings were safe.

Speaking ahead of the next full council meeting on Wednesday, which will see 59 councillors plus staff, public and press meet at the Magna centre, Mr Read said there was a "cost and complication" to in-person meetings.

"It seems wrong to me that the government are telling people to work from home where you can, but specifically saying you councillors can put your health at risk by going and all sitting together in one big room," he told the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

A judicial review which would have allowed virtual meetings to continue was dismissed by the High Court earlier this year,

In the seven days to 3 January, Rotherham recorded 2,479 new infections per 100,000 people, above the England average of 1,758 cases.

Mr Read said: "You just want to do everything you can to make sure people are safe, and forcing 80, 90 people in a room together - it's just unnecessary, and we shouldn't have to do it, and the government could easily fix that."

A spokesperson for the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities said councils should follow Covid-19 guidance and the government would work closely with them.

They said the department would be "responding shortly" to evidence submitted regarding "a longer-term decision about whether to make express provision for councils to meet remotely on a permanent basis".