Blaenau Gwent councillors consider trekking to Pontypool for face-to-face meetings

BLAENAU GWENT councillors could be trekking over the county border to Pontypool for future full council meetings.
This is one of the options that will be debated at a meeting of Blaenau Gwent County Borough Council on Thursday, September 26.
Nearly all full council meetings have been held wholly online since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic in March 2020.
While the pandemic is over, face to face full council meetings in Blaenau Gwent have not returned as they have done at other authorities.
This is because the council do not have a space big enough to potentially hold all councillors, staff, and members of the public at the Grade II listed former steelworks General Offices (GO) in Ebbw Vale.
The council does hold some hybrid meetings with some councillors and lay members online and others at a room in the GO.
Earlier this year a working group of councillors looked at a number of options for the return of face to face council meetings which had been called for by  councillors.
The group’s preferred option is to use the council chamber at neighbouring Torfaen Borough Council’s headquarters in Pontypool.
According to the report Torfaen council while charge £1,800 for the hire of the chamber for each meeting.
Performance and democratic service manager Gemma Wasley said: “The Torfaen chamber is of an appropriate size for Blaenau Gwent council to
hold meetings and is fully equipped with hybrid meeting equipment.
“Torfaen also operates the live broadcasting of meetings which is something that Blaenau Gwent will also be able to utilise.”
If this approach is agreed, the joint Blaenau Gwent and Torfaen chief executive Steve Vickers will develop the proposal.
Councillors have been given three options to choose.
They are:
To hold every other council meeting for this year at Torfaen and review this approach at the end of the year.
Hold every other meeting at Torfaen in the short term and ask the working group to explore other options for a council chamber in Blaenau Gwent.
Or –  to continue holding wholly online meetings..
The GO effectively became the council’s headquarters after staff moved out of the Civic Centre in Ebbw Vale in 2020.
The decision to permanently leave and demolish the 1960s Civic Centre in Ebbw Vale was then taken in March 2021.
The building has now been demolished and it is expected that the site will be sold so  that houses will be built there in the future. ‌​‌​‌​​​‍‌​‌​​‌‌‌‍‌​‌‌​​‌​‍‌​‌‌‌​‌‌‍‌​‌‌‌‌​​

By BBC LDRS ‌​‌​‌​​​‍‌​‌​​‌‌‌‍‌​‌‌​​‌​‍‌​‌‌‌​‌‌‍‌​‌‌‌‌​​