Sheffield University to host postponed full council as Ponds Forge is booked for graduations

The council failed to find a suitable venue in time for November’s full council meeting – in which members of the public question city leaders and all 84 councillors debate key issues and make important decisions.

It was due to take place on Wednesday, November 3, at Ponds Forge but it will now be held on Thursday, November 18 at The Octagon Centre, Clarkson Street.

Ponds Forge, where the meetings have been held since spring, was booked for university graduations.

The council held meetings virtually throughout the height of Covid-19 but was ordered by the Government to return to in-person meetings in May.

Instead of the Town Hall council chamber, where full council was held before Covid-19, the council decided to move its biggest monthly meeting to Ponds Forge International Sports Centre so attendees could be socially distanced.

The authority considered Sheffield City Hall, Sheffield Hallam University, Sheffield Wednesday and Sheffield United football grounds, St Mary’s Church, the Salvation Army, the English Institute of Sport and the Quaker Meeting House but said they were unsuitable.

The total cost of holding full council at Ponds Forge – which is run by Sheffield City Trust (SCT), whose main funder is the council – between May and September was £42,927.

The council said the Octagon Centre – which is a multi-purpose conference centre and music venue built in 1983 – will accommodate all 84 members of the council, plus support officers, with more than one metre spacing for attendees.

A webcast of the meeting will be livestreamed on the council’s website and members of the public will be able to present petitions and ask questions in person.

What do Sheffield councillors think about full council being postponed?

When the council announced it would be postponing the meeting a week before it was due to take place, opposition said they were “extremely frustrated”.

Councillor Penny Baker, deputy leader of the Liberal Democrats, said: “It was very foreseeable that the council would still need to be holding Covid-safe meetings through the winter, yet there was a failure to prepare for this and book a room big enough to do so.

“This is also a failure on the part of the Conservative Government who have, since May, been insisting we hold meetings in person rather than continuing to do so online as so many people have done throughout the pandemic. This is an extremely short-sighted political choice on their part. Of course, we want to be holding meetings in person as we have always previously done, but we are still in the pandemic, and we need to act in a safe and sensible way.”

Coun Shaffaq Mohammed, leader of the Liberal Democrats, said: “The full council meetings are an important part of our local democratic process which allow for the questioning and scrutiny of the council. We need to be able to do this if we want to be able to hold the council’s leaders to account and demand better for Sheffielders.”