OIC to continue virtual meetings

Emergency governance arrangements for Orkney Islands Council are set to continue until at least October.

This decision to extend the measures, which allows OIC to be governed digitally from staff and councillors’ homes, was confirmed on Tuesday morning, at a meeting of the full council.

It was last March, as the UK was plunged into lockdown when the authority took unprecedented steps to ensure the safety of its employees and elected members by sending them home to work.

Since then, many of the day-to-day tasks of running OIC have been performed at a distance from School Place. Indeed, since the COVID-19 pandemic began, OIC has presided over such major decisions as how to distribute £35.4million in Islands Deal government funding, the approval of a £230million harbours masterplan, and extending £1million worth of funding to Orkney’s Island Games.

All of these matters were discussed virtually, via Microsoft Teams video conferencing software.

Full story in Thursday’s The Orcadian, available now online and in shops.