Forum Topic

Postponing democracy?

Hounslow council postponed their AGM and election of a new Mayor until 2021, however, government advice is that there's no reason for councils not to hold these meetings remotely and many have done so. Given Hounslow council's enthusiasm for embracing technology - cashless parking, reporting things online, and so on and so on, which they want us to do. It is a reasonable question to ask why they haven't practiced what they preach. Similarly why isn't there a full compliment of members when the planning committee sits? Surely they aren't trying, like some other councils, to take advantage of the pandemic to slide a couple of contentious applications through are they?

Vanessa Smith ● 1878d2 Comments

I've 'attended' 2 virtual planning committees in other parts of the country in the last month and every Councillor has been present, including a very large total of 19 voting Members at one committee.Regarding democracy, turning the thread slightly on its head, I had a controversial application (over 300 objections) which was deferred in October 2019 at Members request for clarification on certain issues, and was then due to be reported back to Committee on 19th March, just prior to the introduction of the lockdown.The authority took the decision to cancel that March committee (even though at that time we weren't in lockdown), and the application was then reported to the first 'virtual' planning committee, which didn't take place until early June.People still complained before that meeting (although of course they didn't complain afterwards when Members refused it !) that it was 'undemocratic' that a controversial application was decided by a virtual planning committee, but the actual process was no different to any other planning committee I've attended.  It was still a public meeting so anyone could watch the report, the speakers still got to address the Members and ask questions, the Members still debated the issues at length and so forth.Who knows how long both my client and the public would have had to wait for a decision to be made had the authority not referred the application to the virtual meeting.

Adam Beamish ● 1877d

Civid is being used to slip a lot of things through, not just with Councils but in NHS trusts. Some of it as dodgy as the Jenrick - Desmond affair. But where are local papers reporting this?  Nowhere.Democracy is so frail when abused in such ways.

Raymond Havelock ● 1877d