TOWN councillors are worried that meetings could get out of control if members are able to attend remotely.

Evesham Town Councillor Bill Kimberley said that some meetings have been disruptive in the past and expressed his concern that councillors could 'get up to all sorts of things' if they were allowed to attend remotely.

The issues were raised at an Evesham Town Council meeting on November 11. 

Issues raised by councillors included problems with technology and attending confidential meetings as well as Evesham Town Council meeting sometimes being 'a bit lively'. 

Cllr Kimberley, said: "The only big reservation I have is as we all know council meetings can sometimes can be quite lively and we have had some disruption sometimes.

"As a good chairman (Robert Raphael) you have managed to control this but I think if we go remote we've got no chance.

"People are just going to be doing what they like on their computers and saying all sorts of things.

"If you are voted for as a councillor don't put your name forward if your not going to put the time in .

"Come to meetings, be a councillor".

Last year councillor Emma Nishigaki was arrested on suspicion of a Section 4 Public Order offence and harassment following an alleged incident at Evesham Town Hall but no further action was taken by police.

The council has until January to give its thoughts to the government and it was agreed that councillors would "feed their comments back to the clerk". 

The issue will be further discussed by councillors in January.

Remote council meetings became the norm during Covid but Evesham Town Council, like other local authorities, has since reverted to standard procedures.

This means councillors have to attend meetings in person in order to participate and vote.

In order to change that, the government would need to amend the Local Government Act 1972.

Cllr Emma Stokes: "Obviously this is something we have been through with the district and the county and its quite significant.

"It is very important that you remember that whichever council you are in, you do discuss confidential information and how can you discuss confidential information when all you're presented with is a screen with somebody's name on it.

"That somebody's name may be sitting in a family meeting, they may have auntie blog with them.

"Auntie blog probably isn't interested in the dispersal of Evesham grants but somebody may be.

"Also you may have people sitting there eating their supper.

"I'm sorry but if you are chosen and you are elected to hold office the least you could do is make every effort to attend in person.

"Inevitable there will be times when you are not able to attend.

"At times it may be sensible a link is sent out but categorically it should be meetings in person."

Councillor Mark Goodge raised similar concerns regarding confidential meetings but did not object to councillors attending remotely if they were unable to make a meeting in person.

Councillor Goodge said: "I don't object in principal to remote attendance but with some specific conditions on it, one is that remote attendance should only be public meetings, it should not be used for confidential meetings.

"The other one is that attendance remotely should not count as attendance for the record.

"In other words at the moment if you don't come after 6 months then you automatically cease to hold office.

"I don't think you should be able to avoid that by remote attendance otherwise you could go live in the south of France and still pretend to be representing the ward in Evesham."