Further to the Government not wishing to renew the legislation on Council’s continuing with virtual or remote meetings from May 7^th 2021, the Parish Council are now obliged by law not to hold such meetings. In this respect, there will be no remote/virtual or any other meetings for the Committees of the Council until after the 21^st June 2021 when it is anticipated that normal public face-to-face meetings can resume without any restrictions, and in public as before the Covid pandemic. The Parish Council cannot hold face-to-face meetings currently as it does not have facilities or access to rooms big enough to conform with the Covid legislation on distancing, airflow, etc for these to be able to be held. In the interim period, all urgent, pressing, or emergency matters relating to any of the Committees will therefore be reported and presented to the Main Council Meetings due to be held on 1st June and 6th July 2021.

The Committees affected are the Allotments & Open Spaces Committee, Finance & Administration Committee, Planning Committee and the Projects and Resilience Committee.

The decision of the Government was challenged in the High Court but unfortunately was not successful. Below is the information received on this from the Local Government Association and the National Association of Local Councils:

"I said we would let you know when we had more news on the outcome of the hearing last week on whether councils have powers to hold meetings online beyond 7 May. The judgement has now been published and the outcome is unfortunately not as we had hoped. The judgement confirms that when the Coronavirus Act powers lapse, council meetings will have to be held in person. New primary legislation is required to allow councils to meet and make decisions using virtual technology."

The Parish Council regrets that the current situation now excludes us from holding remote/virtual meetings, but hope you will understand the reasons why.

Throughout this period the public will not be able to attend meetings of the Planning Licensing and Neighbourhood Plan Committee, they are however encouraged to send comments on any of the planning applications that appear on this site. Please send all comments to: clerk@felphampc.gov.uk.