ONLINE meetings may become a "continuing feature" of Council decision making in Bradford - according to a new report.

Following Government guidance on public meetings, Bradford Council has not held any physical meetings since mid March due to the Covid 19 pandemic, with all its public meetings being held online and live streamed.

It has seen Councillors and officers swapping City Hall for laptops and tablets - but not every meeting has gone smoothly.

On Thursday members of the Council's Governance and Audit Committee will receive a report on the democratic process since lockdown.

It says some meetings have been more complex to arrange than others. One example given is the Licensing Committee which, as well as requiring Councillors to communicate with officers online, needs to allow applicants and objectors to play a major role in the meetings.

The report refers to a meeting of the Regulatory and Appeals Committee, which decides on major planning applications, in June.

Online planning meeting described as ‘appalling’ by Committee member

That meeting lasted almost seven hours, during which one member described the technology behind the online meeting as "not fit for purpose" and after which another wrote to Council leaders to describe the experience as "appalling."

The report says the committee will meet twice in August to avoid such a long meeting.

It adds: "There will be two meetings of the Committee in August given the volume of planning applications to be considered and the experience of having met for a full day during hot weather which proved to be an arduous experience for members of the Committee, the public participants and officers presenting the planning applications and servicing the meeting."

The report adds: "There have been connectivity issues in delivering meetings remotely.

"In a couple of instances this was due to the remote platform not being available which has led to a delayed start to meetings but other connection issues have been due to participants own IT provision.

"The Council’s IT Service and Public-i have both been very supportive in diagnosing and resolving the issues. All councillors have undertaken training to enable them to participate in meetings held remotely."

Government regulations currently in place allow Councils to hold meetings online instead of in person until May 2021.

The report to the committee, which is also meeting online, says: "The Local Government Association supports the extension of the regulations and it may be that remote meetings become a continuing feature of local authority democratic decision making."