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23
Dec 2024
Council weighs in on councillor 'work from home' debate
North Yorkshire Council has weighed in on the debate over whether elected councillors should be allowed to attend meetings virtually from home.
The government has outlined proposals to allow councils to hold remote committee meetings and to vote by proxy.
Angela Rayner, deputy prime minister and secretary of state for housing, communities and local government, made the announcement in October during the Local Government Association conference in Harrogate.
The last Conservative government temporarily dropped a legal requirement to hold full council meetings in person during covid but reintroduced the rule in May 2021.
Angela Rayner delivering her speech at the 2024 LGA Conference in Harrogate.
During her speech, Ms Rayner said the move would allow “people from all walks of life to have a stake in local democracy” but added that it would be up to councillors themselves to decide whether to hold meetings remotely.
In a consultation response, North Yorkshire Council officials said they welcomed the move in principle but urged ministers to ensure that the decision on whether to hold meetings remotely are made locally.
The council said:
It should be a matter for each local authority to determine the parameters of if and when remote meetings should take place and how they should be run.
Whilst there are arguments for and against remote/hybrid meetings, this council believes that it should be a matter of local choice to reflect the views of the locally democratically elected members to serve their locality.
Councils should be able to determine locally how and when to use hybrid/remote meetings and this choice should not be mandated by central government.
The council added that North Yorkshire was geographically the largest county in the country and the ability to have remote meetings would be helpful to “reduce mileage, travel time, costs and reduce carbon emissions”.
‘Not in favour of proxy voting’
However, authority officials have objected to proposals to introduce proxy voting.
Under the proposed rules, councillors would be allowed to vote on behalf of others who can’t attend debates, such as for childcare or health reasons.
Rayner told delegates in October that it would be up to councils to decide whether they used proxy votes or not.
However, North Yorkshire Council officials said it was firmly against the move.
They said:
This council is not in favour of proxy voting as decision-makers should be physically or remotely in attendance at the meeting and hear the arguments made before a decision is taken.
Allowing proxy voting in these circumstances would show a member to have a closed mind in that they would already have determined the way they are going to vote without hearing the arguments being presented on the day.
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