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11 June 2021 / Nicholas Dobson
Issue: 7936 / Categories: Features , Public , Local government , Covid-19
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Virtual council meetings: Back to reality

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English virtual council meetings? Not a remote chance. Nicholas Dobson reports
  • Primary legislation is required to allow local authority meetings under the Local Government Act 1972 to take place remotely.
  • Where the requirement for such meetings to be ‘open to the public’ or ‘held in public’ applies, members of the public must also be admitted in person.

The Local Government Act 1972 prescribed the core local authority constitutional structure. But when the Act was written, Atari Pong table-tennis was exotic new hi-tech and virtual communications mere science fiction. If ‘remote meeting’ meant anything at all it would have referred to one held in a faraway location. But in 2020 two things shook the local government legal landscape. First, in January 2020 the coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) invaded the UK and was not slow to show it meant virulent business. On 25 March this gave rise to the Coronavirus Act 2020, following a four-day warp-speed Parliamentary teleport. And second, (unlike in 1972 when even the humble pocket calculator

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