Letters

Councillor should’ve been offered help to use Zoom

I was saddened to hear about Dennis Baxter being disqualified from his role as a local councillor (Star Letter, Issue 606). Having researched the background to the story, I do wonder whether it could have been easily prevented by following similar measures that my parish council undertook.

We had a councillor who was unable to use a PC, though she was very active in the community. Councillors are disqualified if they go six months without attending a meeting, and given the exceptional circumstances of the pandemic I thought it would be unfair for her to leave her role just because she lacked Zoom skills.

We arranged for her to attend virtually in a parish office using a computer. There was somebody present – observing social distancing rules – to help her operate it. This effectively reset the clock of meetings not attended, meaning that six-month period began again, and allowed her to continue. She was very grateful for this assistance. It seems a shame that Dennis Baxter wasn’t also shown this courtesy.