Lincolnshire council hosts first public virtual meeting, for five minutes

A Lincolnshire council live streamed the first five minutes of a licensing meeting which saw an application refused for a troubled shop, before excluding press and public.

South Holland District Council was the first council to host a virtual meeting and has said it is exploring other meetings it can do the same with.

The meeting was held via Zoom and live streamed on the council’s Facebook page for four minutes and 49 seconds before the public section ended.

The application revolved around Milenia Kudracova’s attempt to take over the premises licence for Delicja in Westlode Street, Spalding.

Lincolnshire Police had objected to the application due to “multiple previous law breaches”.

A spokesman for the council confirmed after the meeting that the panel had determined not to grant the licence.

The committee has previously revoked the store’s licence after police found it had paid an illegal worker, sold beer without a display price and 763 boxes of foreign medicine.

The owner at the time Aram Salar has previously had applications to hold the licence himself rejected, particularly after events in 2011 which saw him “flee” to Iraq and avoid a court case.

There had also been issues with a three-month “transition” period between his purchase of the shop and the transfer application.

More than 600 people have watched the five minute broadcast.

The council’s portfolio holder for governance and customer Tracey Carter said it was “important that we, as elected members, find a way to keep making vital decisions and continue to represent our residents as best we can”.

“Our officers have been working hard to find the best software to allow meetings to take place whilst observing social distancing, and I was delighted with how well the new system worked at the meeting last week,” she said.

“The decisions this technology allows us to make will help keep the District running and ease our ability to recover quickly and effectively once lockdown is lifted.”

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