VALE Council will hold most scrutiny meetings remotely with a contract to continue on a year-by-year basis with a communication firm based in England.

In a cabinet meeting on July 18, councillors agreed to go into a year-by-year contract with Andover based VP-AV to hold scrutiny meetings remotely.

Hybrid meetings could be scaled up at the council, with the recommendation from report ‘Hybrid Meeting Platform Updates’ saying most meetings should be held on a hybrid basis and only matters of county wide interest will be considered being held in person, determined by the chair of the scrutiny committee in conjunction with the chief executive.

Vale Council leader Lis Burnett welcomed the hybrid meeting format saying it helps meet the councils net zero carbon footprint target while it has not been detrimental to people being able to participate.

However, some councillors disagree, including Cllr George Carroll, leader of Vale Conservatives and Cllr Rhys Thomas, chairman of the learning and culture scrutiny committee, who recorded their dismay at the decision.

Cllr Thomas feared this decision would “undermine the democratic process”, while Cllr Carroll noted hybrid meetings could make the council’s performance “even worse”.

In February, in what had to be one of the most important planning meetings held in recent times by Vale Council - a decision on housing development at Cosmeston Old Farm and looking into sparking up Barry’s biomass burner - that meeting descended into chaos with many councillors unable to login remotely.

In the end the meeting was cut short, a decision defended by the council, however Cllr Nic Hodges, one of three of the 17 planning committee members to attend in person on the day, strongly suggesting councillors “actively attend meetings in person”. The decisions in question were held up three weeks and wouldn’t be decided until mid-March.

On hybrid meetings at the council, Cllr Burnett said: “The majority of scrutiny members proposed to attend remotely and it has not appeared to be detrimental to people’s ability to participate.

“Looking at our zero carbon aims and the resources we are working with, it seems a suitable outcome.”

Cllr Burnett did mention the council held back on signing a three-year deal with VP-AV, going into one year rolling due to the council still ironing out some issues with the meeting format.

Cllr Burnett added: “I think it is fair to say we are still in a stage of development.

“The complexities of having English language translation both remote and in person, live streaming, and managing the meetings, it can be tricky functionally, and with the feed back from the previous report, it can be confusing for members.”