First 'virtual' cabinet meeting of Northamptonshire County Council to take place this afternoon

Northamptonshire County Council's cabinet will meet virtually this afternoon for the first team in the authority's history

The council’s Conservative cabinet is set to meet 2pm today, making it the first public meeting in almost a month since full council met at County Hall on March 19.

Since then, the government’s lockdown measures have enforced social distancing in a bid to combat the coronavirus pandemic, meaning that no council meetings have taken place.

But the cabinet members will log in using cloud-based technology, and the virtual meeting will be screened live on YouTube for members of the public and press to follow when it starts this afternoon.

Items on the agenda include the council’s latest finances, with updates on both its revenue day-to-day running funds and also cash for its capital (infrastructure) projects.

Members are also set to agree to hand over funding from housing developers – known as section 106 funds – to help expand a school in Brackley and another in Moulton to meet growing demand.

They will also discuss the findings of the latest annual report from Lucy Wightman, the council’s Director of Public Health.

Conversation will also likely steer to how the authority is dealing with and providing services during the coronavirus outbreak, although no specific agenda item has been brought forward for this purpose just yet.

The meeting will be the first virtual council meeting ever held by the county council, although they have already been beaten to the title for the first in Northamptonshire, with Brixworth Parish Council holding two virtual meetings at the end of March.