Public Meetings At COVID-19 Alert Level 2 - What Happens Now

27 May 2020, 16:58 by Nelson City Council

At Alert Levels 4 and 3, Nelson City Council held all of its public meetings remotely, via Zoom, to comply with Government rules around gatherings of people.

Now, we are at Alert Level 2 and Government advice states that up to 100 people can gather indoors, Council meetings will once again be held in the Chamber at Civic House.

However, because members of the public and media are required to maintain 2m physical distancing, as opposed to 1m for colleagues sharing the same workplace, there is not capacity for members of the public or media to attend in person.

Members of the public scheduled to speak at meetings during Level 2, will be able to do so via Zoom.

Proceedings will be livestreamed as normal on Council’s YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/NelsonCouncil.

Precautions will be taken during meetings to ensure Covid-19 guidelines are followed.

Chamber furniture has been rearranged to accommodate the required 1m physical distancing for meetings
Elected Members and staff who are unwell must not attend.
Arrangements for continued attendance via Zoom are in place for those who are unable to attend in person, including those who do not wish to attend due to vulnerability to COVID-19
Hygiene: There will be additional cleaning and hand sanitiser will be made available.

The first Council meeting back at Civic House starts at 9am tomorrow (Thursday, 28 May) and is for the Environment Committee.

Nelson Mayor Rachel Reese praised Council’s governance team for the work they have done to ensure local democracy continued to function in Nelson.

“New technologies have been embraced, which have allowed us to continue to conduct Council business even during this difficult and unusual time. During Alert Levels 4 and 3 there was a need for Council to act swiftly and decisively, while making decisions in a transparent and accessible manner.

It’s been fantastic to see the broad range of people who have spoken to us via Zoom over the past two months, and I am confident the system is robust enough to work until life is back to normal.”