Face-to-face meetings to resume for Ludlow Town Council next month

Town councillors will meet in person next month for the first time in over a year as legislation allowing meetings to be held remotely comes to an end.

Ludlow councillors will gather face-to-face on May 24, but have swapped their usual council chamber in the Guildhall for a larger venue to allow for social distancing.

It will also be a much shorter meeting than usual, after councillors agreed to hand over decision making powers temporarily to the town clerk in order to keep meetings as brief as possible.

Clerk Gina Wilding told members at a meeting this week: “The position we find ourselves in is that from May 6, as it stands at the moment, it will not be legal to hold virtual meetings, and therefore we need to look at alternative arrangements.

“Keeping people as safe as possible has to be the consideration.

“So we are using a bigger space than is available at the Guildhall, and keeping the face-to-face meetings to the minimum possible.

“The council would have the opportunity to make recommendations which would be enacted under delegated power until such a time as either we are enabled to make decisions by virtual meetings or the council decides that it’s safe to hold all its meetings in person.”

Councillors agreed to the new meeting arrangements, including delegating powers to the clerk, with nine votes for, two against and one abstention.

Similar measures to allow clerks to make decisions normally taken by elected members were put in place by councils across the country at the onset of the pandemic last year, to allow them to continue to function before emergency laws were brought in permitting virtual meetings.

But the step to delegate powers again, despite arrangements being made for socially distanced meetings, has been criticised by incoming town councillor Andy Boddington.

Councillor Boddington, also the unitary councillor for Ludlow North, will join the town council following next week’s local elections, elected unopposed to take one of three seats representing Gallows Bank ward.

He said he was “astonished” that the majority of town councillors agreed to hand over powers without any discussion.

Councillor Boddington said: “I have contacted councillors across the country. None have seen a similar situation where a clerk has been given emergency powers outside of an emergency.

“The normal practice in an emergency is to delegate powers to the chairs of committees, who make decisions having liaised with the vice chair and clerk, along with members if needed.

“The clerk does not make the decision. But that is what Ludlow Town councillors agreed to.”

Councillor Boddington added that there was no reason to limit the agenda of a meeting being held in line with current Covid guidance.

He added: “What is the point of having elections if officers make all the important decisions?

“Ludlow town councillors have abdicated their responsibility to make the decisions that are in the best interests of our town. There was no requirement on them to do so.”

The first face-to-face meeting will be the annual meeting on May 24. It will be held at the Methodist Church in Broad Street, with members of the public able to observe from the gallery.