Nottinghamshire councillors say proxy voting in remote meetings 'isn't democracy'

The council’s governance and ethics committee met on November 27 to discuss the Government’s latest consultation on its intention to give local authorities more flexibility on meetings.

The Government believes a modern remote approach will help councils have more diverse representation and resilience if national emergencies occur.

Initial plans were first introduced in 2017 but no rules were changed until the pandemic, when temporary measures were brought in to allow councils to meet online or in a hybrid format.

A court decision in 2021 saw that meetings must happen in a specific, physical location.

Now with the Government’s updated intention of more remote flexibility, the council’s committee discussed its written response to the consultation.

Its response noted councils should be allowed full remote attendance for up to half of meetings within 12 months, and whenever ‘unforeseen circumstances’ arise.

Coun Sue Saddington (Con) said: “I think there are occasions when voting or listening to a meeting on Teams could be an advantage.

“For a pre-agenda meeting, some members probably have over an hour to travel for probably not anything like an hour’s meeting and that is a waste of everybody’s time.”

Coun Roger Upton (Con) said that ‘change is inevitable’ and that the council should be given the choice to set its own rules.

Coun Chris Barnfather (Con) believes the council’s default position ‘should always be that you are physically present’ as an elected authority but expressed concern of the ‘proxy’ vote that the Government’s consultation also wishes to assess views on.

A proxy vote is where a councillor can delegate their vote to another councillor to enable them to vote in their absence.

Coun Barnfather, Conservative Group business manager and chief whip, said: “I could turn up here, none of the other members be present and I’ll have whipped my members in to their proxy vote – that actually isn’t democracy.

“Many times I’ve sat up there as the chair of the planning committee and members of my group have voted against a recommendation – that is absolutely as it should be because they’re voting according to their concious and their beliefs”

Coun Jim Creamer (Lab) questioned the relevance of a debate if proxy voting was enabled.

He said: “We’re both pre-determined – it wouldn’t work at all in planning because legally we’d be right out the window because you are pre-determined because you’re using somebody’s proxy vote.”

Within the council’s response to the Government, it rejected the idea of proxy voting on the grounds of it running against ‘good practice’.

The committee voted unanimously in favour of the council’s drafted response.

The Government consultation of councils closes on December 19.