Issue - meetings

To approve the Council’s draft Digital Strategy for consultation.

The Committee considered a report on the Draft Digital Strategy.

It was intended to issue the Draft Strategy for formal consultation with a view to submitting a final version to the Committee in March 2022.

Officers corrected an error in paragraph 1.3 of the report, which should have stated that the Committee had approved a recommendation to develop a single overarching Digital Strategy in September 2021.

Arising from members’ consideration of the report, the following comments were made:

§  Consideration should be given to how people in rural areas would be made aware of the public consultation and to how would they be able to make their views known.

§  Attention should be given to the way in which digital systems worked in practice. As an illustration of this, reference was made to recent instances in which the recordings of committee meetings had not been available on the website. The Executive Director of Corporate Services responded that officers were seeking to resolve the technical issues, including with the Council’s new firewall.

§  The proposal to develop a community grant scheme to fund equipment, subsidise broadband and install wi-fi was welcomed.

At the invitation of the Chair, Councillor L Wardlaw spoke on this matter as a visiting member.

RESOLVED (unanimously)

That

1.    the Draft Digital Strategy be approved for formal consultation; and

2.    the final version of the Digital Strategy be submitted to the Committee following consultation in March 2022.