£250k outlay as council prepares for hybrid meetings

Caerphilly County Borough Council is set to spend more than £250k on software and equipment to hold hybrid meetings.

The transition to a mixture of live streaming meetings and in-person attendance has been approved by the council’s cabinet.

Prior to the pandemic, meetings were held at the council’s headquarters at Ty Penallta, Tredomen.

Councillors will now be able to join meetings from anywhere or attend in person if they prefer to.

In May 2022, it will become the law for local authorities in Wales to allow councillors and council officers to access the meetings from anywhere, as well as have access to a simultaneous Welsh translation.

The council hopes the change will make the role of a councillor more accessible to those who have full-time jobs and may not have time to travel to meetings.

In a cabinet meeting, held on Wednesday, December 8, Councillor Ross Whiting said: “I think this will really help when it comes to democracy in general in Caerphilly.”

Cllr Whiting, who is Cabinet Member for Education, said: “More people can run to be a councillor, and they can be a councillor in a much better way.”

Council leader Philippa Marsden said that the option of joining a meeting from home is positive for the environment – it could mean there are less cars on the road during rush hour.

The cost of the change to hybrid meetings is broken down as follows:

• £7,000 toupgrade the electrical infrastructure within the
  council chamber to support device charging.
• £124,899 to cover the hardware, including an 85-inch smart screen.
• £126,841 over three years for the maintenance of the software.

It will be funded by the council’s Member Services Earmarked Reserve and the Miscellaneous Finance Revenue Contribution to Capital Outlay (RCCO) budgets.

Cllr Colin Gordon, Cabinet Member for Corporate Services, said: “The pandemic has completely changed how the council conducts its meetings. While some have welcomed this new, flexible way of remote working and virtual meeting attendance, it has been difficult for others.”

Cllr Gordon said the cabinet is “committed to understanding and adapting to the diversity among our councillors” and added: “We believe a hybrid solution, where members can in future join hybrid meetings in person, when restrictions allow, or remotely if they wish, is the best way to move forward.

“To do this we need to make these investments. In the longer term, once the pandemic is over, this technology will continue to pay dividends by allowing councillors to do their important work with more flexibility and diversity than ever before.”