Vale of Grwyney Community Council
Hybrid Meeting Policy
July 2022
1. Introduction
Section 47 of the Local Government and Elections (Wales) Act 2021 (‘the 2021 Act’) provides for multi-location attendance at community and town council (hereafter noted as ‘community council’) meetings. The requirement is that a community council must make and publish arrangements for convening meetings, which allows – but not requires – participants to be in multiple locations. It is important for Councils to be clear the minimum requirement is that members are able to hear and be heard by others.
The Vale of Grwyney Community Council recognises the benefits of offering hybrid/blended meetings) and has developed this policy to assist the Chair, councillors and members of the public/press to understand how these meetings differ from a physical meeting and to assist people to engage in debate and decision making.
2. Virtual Meeting ‘platform’
The Vale of Grwyney Community Council utilises Zoom to provide video communications. Zoom enables video and audio conferencing for persons using mobile devices, desktops, and fixed room systems.
The zoom meeting link and joining details will be published on the council web site (www.valeofgrwyney.org) under ‘Agendas’ not less than five days prior to the meeting. The joining details will also be emailed to councillors not less than one day prior to the meeting. Members of the public can access the meeting via the link on the web site or contact the Clerk for it.
Members should ensure that the name that appears on screen in connection with their image should be their full name and include the title Councillor in order that the public can identify elected members.
3. Hybrid Meetings
Members attending remotely will be expected to join the meeting at least ten minutes before the proposed start time for the meeting to ensure that they are able to connect.
At the start of the meeting the Chair will make an introduction to the meeting and issue a reminder of hybrid meeting protocols.
The Chair will ensure that every member has the opportunity to participate in the meeting and that members are called to speak in the order that they indicate their wish to do so wherever they are attending the meeting from. Members, attending both remotely and physically, should raise their hand to indicate that they wish to speak.
Members’ use of the ‘chat’ function should be restricted to issues such as informing the meeting that they are leaving temporarily or permanently, or that they are having connectivity issues. The ‘chat’ function should not be used to make contributions to the debate or to send informal messages to other attendees.
Public speakers will be contacted by the Clerk in advance of the council meeting to establish whether they wish to attend in person or remotely. Remote attendees will be provided with a link to the meeting. All remote public speakers will be invited to join the meeting when they enter the ‘waiting room’ but must remain in mute mode and not speak unless invited by the Chair to do so. The Chair will invite each speaker to begin their presentation at the appropriate time. Speakers are requested to provide their presentation to the Chair in advance of the meeting either in writing or as images in an electronic format that the Clerk can display to all attendees. During a presentation any images will be displayed by the Clerk as directed by the speaker. Speakers will not be given control of the Zoom meeting to display their presentations. The presentation must be finished before any questions are asked.
In the event of issues with connectivity, the Chair will read the speaker’s presentation on their behalf and the Clerk will display the images submitted. Similarly members wishing to table any supporting material for an agenda item must provide it in a suitable electronic format to the Clerk prior to the meeting so that remote attendees can be shown the content on their screens. The Chair reserves the right to with-hold the display of images that they consider may be illegal or otherwise do not comply with a Council policy. Speakers will then ‘leave’ the meeting following the relevant agenda item, if necessary with support from the meeting host.
4. Specific Hybrid Meeting Arrangements
- Discussions
This section applies if members are experiencing good connectivity. In the case of poor connectivity see 4c.
During the meeting all persons attending remotely other than members will be muted. During the public participation period members of the public will be required to ‘enable video’ in order for them to be visible to the Chair and will raise their hand to indicate that they wish to speak. Their microphone will then be unmuted and they can address the meeting. Following the conclusion of their address the microphone will be muted.
When attending remotely, Members need to ensure that they are able to remain on-line throughout debates and during voting in order to maintain the integrity of the decision-making process and to reduce the opportunity for legal challenge of any decision.
All members attending the meeting remotely will monitor their own background noise and mute their own microphones, except when invited to speak by the Chair, to negate interference with the meeting. Members should avoid setting their devices to the highest volume, sit too close to the microphone, have other electronic devices operating or shuffle papers in front of the microphone as this is likely to cause feedback. Members are encouraged to keep their cameras on at all times in order that they may be seen throughout debates and voting. However, it is recognised that if a Member is experiencing poor connectivity it may be necessary to turn their video off.
Members recognise and accept that their microphones may be switched off remotely by the Clerk if they have been left on inadvertently when the Member is not speaking.
- Voting
All voting will be undertaken by a show of hands.
- Poor Connectivity/Remote Attendance
If a member is believed to have ‘dropped out’ this will be minuted. If ‘drop outs’ result in the meeting becoming inquorate the Chair will require the meeting to be paused in order to allow re-establishment of connectivity if at all possible. If it proves impossible to re-establish connection for a sufficient number of Members to reach a quorum, the meeting will be adjourned to a later date. If a quorum is achieved the meeting will proceed, notwithstanding a Member’s or Members’ failure to achieve a connection. If a Member joins the meeting at a later time they must make themselves known immediately to the Chair and comment and vote only on those complete agenda items remaining.
In the case of video not being available for some or all of members attending the Chair will operate on a roll call for councillor views on individual agenda items.
- Telephone attendance
Persons wishing to attend by telephone are advised to contact the Clerk in advance in order that processes can be put in place to enable appropriate engagement.
5. Hybrid Meeting Etiquette
Normal Standing Orders apply with regard to Conduct at Meetings and all attendees are expected to be mindful of the difficulties people experience with regard to the operation of technology. Behaviour that is contrary to the intended outcomes of the meeting will be dealt with at the discretion of the Chair. For a member of the public or press this may result in them being dismissed from the Zoom meeting.
When attending remotely, Members and any participants must ensure that the room from which they are accessing the remote meeting is suitable in terms of privacy and that no disturbance occurs during the course of the meeting as it is important to ensure a degree of formality in the proceedings.
Members attending physically or remotely shall direct comments to the Chair. Only one person to speak at a time. If more than one person wishes to speak the Chair shall direct the order of speaking.
6. Declaration of Interests
If remote attendees declare a personal and prejudicial interest in a particular item, in order to comply with the Code of Conduct for Members, they will be removed from the meeting by the Clerk and placed in the “waiting room”. On conclusion of the item for which the declaration is made the councillor will be returned to the meeting. The Clerk as moderator can also add and remove other attendees such as public speakers. If attendees are physically present, they will physically leave the room for the duration of the item.
7. Confidential Matters
If there is confidential business to transact members of the public/press attending remotely will be placed in the ‘waiting room’ and those physically present will be asked to leave the room. On conclusion of the confidential business the meeting shall resume with members of the public invited to return.8. Recording
Meetings will be recorded to aid minute taking. The recordings will be deleted following adoption of the minutes at the following meeting.
Online attendees should be aware that there will always be certain residual risks in relation to the technical infrastructure used for hybrid meetings. These risks include any failure in virtual meeting equipment, software, network infrastructure, servers, internet or telephone connectivity, video or voice equipment.
Policy adopted July 2022
Vale of Grwyney Community Council 