'Porn invasion' fears over Zoom meetings of Barnsley Council

Opposition councillors teamed up to write a letter to council bosses, questioning how the authority has handled meetings during lockdown, and saying now is the time to reinstate them virtually, in the interests of democracy.

The letter, organised by Coun Jake Lodge, an Independent, and Coun Hannah Kitching, Liberal Democrat group leader, requested the full reinstatement of the council calendar, with meetings to be held virtually for the foreseeable future.

In the letter, addressed to Sir Steve Houghton, council leader, and Sarah Norman, chief executive, councillors say that although they understand the impact coronavirus has had on holding meetings, now is the time that the 'democratic process should continue in full'.

In her response, the chief executive said popular virtual meeting platform Zoom was unsuitable to hold council meetings.

She said: “Significant challenges remain with holding meetings with larger numbers of participants and I do not believe Zoom is a suitable medium to use until we can be totally assured the very unpleasant pornographic invasions a number have users have experienced have been unequivocally addressed.”

Ms Norman also claimed in her response that Microsoft Teams, the council's preferred provider, is unmanageable for large meetings and the authority will try to get things running again by September.

Coun Lodge said he was disappointed iby the response.

He said: "This is an astounding response from the council. It feels like they are hiding behind IT issues in order to avoid scrutiny, democracy and proper governance. This simply isn't acceptable.

“We don't care what technology they use, be it Zoom or Teams or something else, but we need to reinstate full council meetings as soon as possible.

"I do not understand why the leader and the Labour group aren't pushing harder for this. They should be itching to get back to normal business, just as we are.”

Coun Kitching said: “This is exactly the same response I had from the chief executive a month ago, when she promised to look into ways to make this happen.

"She clearly has not done that. Zoom premium is being used successfully for a variety of businesses and meetings including on sensitive matters and with vulnerable people. Barnsley Youth Choir is conducting its rehearsals via Zoom, with fantastic reassurance to parents as to why they are confident it is safe.

"Both the House of Commons and House of Lords have successfully used it too. Full council meetings are open to the public anyway - less attention is given to security for those than for the idea of virtual meetings.

“If the council continues to use this excuse to not use Zoom premium, then it needs to make more effort to push forward with trying to use a different platform.

“We have suggested a trial full council meeting using Microsoft Teams. If that is successful, then there is no reason why we can't continue as we were doing before the pandemic hit, with full committees and a full calendar of meetings, just virtually.”

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