A Moray community council has lost its home – because it is banned from using the local authority’s microphones.
Elgin Community Council met once a month in the Moray Council chamber to discuss important local issues.
The pandemic forced them to move online, but now they are ready to meet face-to-face once again.
They had assumed they would be able to return to the chamber, a venue they have used since 2002 for meetings.
But although they are still technically free to use the chamber, they are not allowed to use the council’s new £70,000 hybrid IT system.
This makes it impossible to hear.
Instead, community council meetings are currently being held in the lounge at Elgin Town Hall, which the group has to pay for.
They was no fee for using the local authority’s room.
Forbidden from using £70k IT system
While the group is allowed to use the chamber for meetings, they are forbidden from using the microphones.
But acoustics in the room are poor if the audio equipment is not on, making meeting in the chamber impractical.
The local authority says the system needs to be observed when running, and it is unable to “resource” its use by the group.
Funding for the £70,000 hybrid system came from Covid recovery money granted to the local authority by the Scottish Government.
Chairman of the community council Alastair Kennedy said: “The council chambers is the easiest place to run a meeting especially if there’s a lot of people.
“It is disappointing that we’re not able to return because the community council has been using the chamber since 2002.
“We were able to use the old system before. Maybe we’re too stupid to use this one.”
A meeting of the Joint Community Councils of Moray scheduled for next month to be held in the chamber, has now been moved online.
A spokeswoman for Moray Council said: “The system requires to be set-up and monitored during its use and the council cannot resource this.”
The hybrid system was installed earlier this year to allow people to attend meetings in person or virtually.
Covid recovery money
Councillors agreed last year for Covid recovery money to be used for it.
The new model replaces the old sound system, which had been in use for more than 15 years but was incompatible with holding hybrid meetings.
As well as hosting committee meetings, the chamber is also used for staff training.
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