Northern Ireland

Parties in joint letter urging Belfast council to allow virtual meetings

Belfast City Hall
Belfast City Hall Belfast City Hall

SIX parties have issued a joint letter calling on Belfast City Council to allow virtual committee meetings.

Alliance, the SDLP, People Before Profit, the Greens, UUP and PUP want city hall to follow the example of other councils and Stormont by holding online meetings.

The move has been blocked by Sinn Féin and the DUP, which together hold a slight majority with 33 out of 60 seats.

The council instead plans to resume most meetings online from August.

At the start of the Covid-19 crisis, public meetings were suspended and authority delegated to senior staff with some input from party group leaders.

The lack of public meetings has led to concerns over transparency and scrutiny of decision-making.

In a letter to the lord mayor, signed by councillors representing each of the six smaller parties, they call for a virtual meeting to discuss the pandemic "and to agree to immediately resume virtual monthly meetings of the council, the council committees and working groups".

SDLP group leader Donal Lyons described the council's current stance as "baffling".

"There's been no credible reasons given as to why Belfast City Council can't resume committee meetings online until August and when business, community groups and even families are all using video conferencing daily. Councils across Ireland have already started this," he said.

People Before Profit's Fiona Ferguson also said she "cannot fathom why Sinn Féin and the DUP do not want normal council meetings to resume".

Belfast council said a "phased approach" had been agreed with a trial of a virtual committee meeting in June.

It added: "It was also agreed that council meetings will take place in June (separate to the annual meeting) and July to ratify committee decisions for May and June.

"As part of this, it is intended that virtual meetings for all established committees will be introduced from August 2020 onwards."