Cornwall councillors have called for work to be done to plan how councillors will be able to meet in person again after having all meetings moved online during the coronavirus crisis.

A motion went to a meeting of full council on Tuesday afternoon which called for the “restoration of democratic processes” at County Hall.

There has been concern among members about meetings being held online and claims that it has reduced the amount of scrutiny of decisions being made by the council.

However some councillors believed that the motion should have been withdrawn from the meeting as it came following the Prime Minister’s lunchtime announcement that people should work at home where they can.

The motion has suggested that a new hybrid system should be developed to allow those councillors who want to meet in County Hall to do so while others could continue to participate in meetings online.

Bob Egerton, who tabled the motion, said: “The motivation behind the motion is not to get all members back into County Hall very soon, shaking hands and hugging each other and pretending that all is well in the world.”

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He added that it was to look at “how the council is best to operate over the next six months and how it will operate when the new council is elected in 2021”.

Cllr Egerton said that the use of online meetings had forced members to become more IT literate and there had been advantages.

But he said that some aspects of the council such as scrutiny and learning were done better where people can meet together.

Labour group leader Stephen Barnes seconded the motion and claimed that “democracy is under threat here in Cornwall”.

He said that the council should be working to ensure that there is a system in place when it was safe enough for meetings to resume in person.

Lib Dem councillor Dominic Fairman said he did not support the proposals and said that he felt that by holding meetings online it was supporting democracy and making the council more accessible.

He added that it would also reduce the amount of money that the council would have to spend on mileage expenses for councillors. He said that the full bill for this was around £110,000 a year.

Edwina Hannaford said that she did not think that the council “should be gambling with the health of our staff and fellow councillors”.

She said there were clear and obvious benefits to working from home both for the environment and for staff and councillors to have a better work/life balance.

When put to the vote the motion was agreed with 57 votes in favour, 43 against and one abstention.