Harrogate council to meet in person for first time since lockdown

The Nightingale hospital in Harrogate has now reverted to its use as a convention centre

Harrogate council will use Yorkshire's former Nightingale Hospital to host its first full in-person meeting since the start of lockdown.

The facility at Harrogate Convention Centre did not treat a single Covid-19 patient and was closed in April.

All 39 councillors were due to meet at the Civic Centre headquarters, but the venue was changed because it is not big enough to enable social distancing.

The authority said the public could physically attend the 7 July meeting.

Council meetings have been held online during the pandemic, but the government ordered all local authorities to hold them in-person from May.

The full council meeting is subject to the requirements set out in the Local Government Act 1972.

One such legal requirement is that councillors must be physically present at the meeting in order for decisions to be made, it must also be open to the public to attend.

However, a delay to the lifting of the final phase of Covid restrictions meant the authority was unable to hold its meeting at the smaller Civic Centre headquarters, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

The council said the meeting would also be livestreamed on the authority's YouTube channel.