Monmouthshire Council to hold remote meetings

Monmouthshire council will become the first Gwent authority to hold a remote meeting following new Welsh Government regulations.

The new regulations for Welsh local authorities allowing remote meetings come into effect today and “make temporary provision in relation to local authority meetings and for public and press access to these meetings during the COVID-19 pandemic.”

The assembly member for housing and local government Julie James said: “I do not expect local authority meetings to return to normal for some months and therefore councils will need to be flexible to provide for urgent business relating to COVID-19.”

Monmouthshire County Council is the only Gwent authority to announce the implementation of the new regulations.

The council will hold an investment committee meeting on Friday (April 24), but because of confidential agenda items it will not be available online for the press and public.

However, a council spokesman said that the intention is for future meetings to be available online “despite the flexibility offered by the new regulations.”

A Monmouthshire council spokesman said: “A number of options are available to support future meetings, and all councillors have been given access and guidance on how to use Microsoft TEAMS and have been holding informal political group meetings to get familiar with how the software works and the procedures that the meeting will follow being completely remote.

“Diarised meetings for the next couple of weeks will be postponed until such a time all members are comfortable with holding meetings remotely and the political decision-making system is in full effect again.

“That said, new meetings will likely be scheduled pending the success of the Investment Committee and those will be made available in due course.”