• AS a result of the new Coronavirus Act, councillors can participate in local authority meetings without being together in the same chamber.

In ancient times the size of meetings was limited to the range of the human voice or distant signals. Modern telegraphy extended the reach of communication and now with the web we can interact with many more people in different ways.

This means we can make council services more democratic.

The Camley Street steering group is considering the future development of the area. It is nominally a small working group made up of ward councillors, council officers and residents and businesses.

The future Camley Street development has the potential to provide increased affordable and social housing to relieve overcrowding, retain the current light industrial food businesses and provide new retail space and a better public realm so its importance extends beyond our ward to all the people of Camden.

The group currently meets in private, but given its importance and new technology, shouldn’t the meetings be open to a wider general audience including all Camden councillors?

By allowing more transparency through having open meetings as a general principle, I believe that we will improve public scrutiny and ultimately improve our democratic procedures, our planning process and our local services.

CLLR PAUL TOMLINSON
Labour, St Pancras & Somers Town ward