Relief for Stafford mayor as council meeting attendance rule relaxed due to coronavirus
Stafford’s mayor will no longer face being unseated in August after borough councillors agreed to relax a meeting attendance rule because of the coronavirus pandemic.
The Local Government Act requires councillors to attend at least one meeting every six months – or they are automatically disqualified.
Stafford Borough Council moved its meetings online in April after lockdown measures came into force to restrict mass gatherings and reduce the spread of Covid-19. Since then a number of council committees have met virtually, using video conferencing system Zoom.
But not all committees have met and the last full council meeting before lockdown was on February 25. This put a number of councillors at risk of disqualification in the coming weeks – including the current mayor, Gareth Jones.
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An extraordinary virtual full council meeting was held on Tuesday so that the non-attendance period could be extended due.
Council leader Patrick Farrington said: “If a councillor is unable or does not attend a meeting within a six-month period, under automatic disqualification rules that person is unable to continue. We have had previous examples of councillors who have, generally through illness, been unable to attend on those occasions when council has met under normal circumstances.
Scrutiny
“A number of virtual meetings have taken place – cabinet, planning and scrutiny meetings – and there are just a handful of councillors that for one reason or another are not on a committee or have not been able to attend for various reasons.
“We are asking that a waiver is allowed to extend the period until October 31. That will allow further scrutiny and other meetings to be brought back under the normal umbrella of council meetings.
“I think it is also particularly important to mention that just because councillors may not have attended their usual meetings, it doesn’t mean to say they haven’t been doing anything. Many of us have been working hard with our local communities.
“On behalf of all of our communities thank you to all of the councillors who have continued to work in that way.”
Almost all councillors voted to waive the requirements of section 85 of the Local Government Act 1972 until the end of October 31 for all members.
There was one abstention however from Councillor Tony Pearce.
He said: “While I accept it has been difficult to arrange full council meetings – particularly during a time when most staff were involved in supporting residents – I do question why we are postponing having a proper council for such a long time. It is certainly possible as we are now having to have a council meeting for us to discuss matters relating to the council.”
