Holding Covid-compliant meetings in Rotherham has cost more than £29,000

Legislation which allowed council meetings to be held virtually from April 2020 expired in May 2021, meaning councils have to hire large venues to ensure social distancing guidelines were met.

Meetings with fewer staff can be accommodated in the usual venue at the town hall, but full council – which requires all 59 councillors plus staff to attend – can’t safely be held there.

Since May, there have been five full council meetings held away from the town hall – four at the Magna centre and one at Dinnington Resource Centre.

The costs of holding meetings away from the Council Chamber, up to and including the Full Council on January 12 have a total cost of £29,055.74.

The council say the cost has been met by the government’s Covid Grant.

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Earlier this week, Labour leader of RMBC, Councillor Chris Read, called for the government to allow councils to hold virtual meetings again, in light of rising infection rates.

During yesterday’s full council meeting, Councillor Read said that he believes the government are expected to come to a view about virtual meetings ‘soon’, but added: “Of course, the concern about that is that we are here now and cases are higher than they’ve ever been.

“We all hope that they would be much lower in another six weeks time, perhaps it won’t be an issue for us.”

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Councillor Read said there was a ‘cost and complication’ to in-person meetings.

Councillor Read told the local democracy reporting service on Monday: “It’s much better for us, much safer to be able to hold all our meetings virtually at the current time.

“There is a cost and a complication for us going to Magna each time which isn’t ideal.

“But at the time when the government’s telling people they should work from home where they can, it seems perverse to say that councillors all have to go in a room all together.

“It seems wrong to me that the government are telling people to work from home where you can, but specifically saying you councillors can put your health at risk by going and all sitting together in one big room.

“You just want to do everything you can to make sure people are safe, and forcing 80, 90 people in a room together – it’s just unnecessary, and we shouldn’t have to do it, and the government could easily fix that.”