Democracy back up and running

All decision-making processes are back up and running at Monmouthshire County Council following the coronavirus pandemic, the authority’s chief executive has said.

Paul Matthews, announced in a full council meeting yesterday that “all processes in terms of democracy and decision-making are established and back up and running.”

Since the coronavirus pandemic lockdown started in March, councils across Wales have had to scale back on meetings and adapt to using online technology for virtual meetings.

However, four months in and Monmouthshire is now live-streaming virtual full council, cabinet and planning committee meetings. Scrutiny meetings have also started up again.

However, Cllr Simon Howarth questioned the call-in procedure and whether it will change.

He said: “Everything we do with councils has risks, ie planning site meetings.

“I would just like to know from Paul (Matthews) we are obliged to actually have debate on decisions made by the council and I want  to know how we are going to do that without the call-in because this isn’t as good as it should be face-to-face.”

The call-in procedure allows select committees to ask for a cabinet report to be brought to a meeting for discussion. However, some reports can be exempt if it is considered an urgent matter.

Mr Matthews said that every decision taken by cabinet since the start of that mechanism has been open to call-in.

Just one report during the coronavirus pandemic lockdown was considered urgent and was therefore not subject to call-in procedures.

The report on using Gilwern Outdoor Education Centre for emergency homeless accommodation during the coronavirus pandemic lockdown was considered urgent according to the county council.

A report explaining the urgency was presented to full council today.

It says: “In this case, the Welsh Government issued “Coronavirus (COVID-19): Local Authority Support for Rough Sleepers” that required Local Authorities to immediately, safely house those rough sleeping or displaced as a result of the state of emergency.

“This requirement saturated MCC’s normal accommodation options and so an additional resource had to be identified at speed.”

In addition to the need for a fast turnaround, virtual select committees had not yet restarted at the council when the report was brought to cabinet on May 27.

Mr Matthews said that so far, only two placements had been made regarding homeless accommodation at Gilwern.