Thatcham Town Council presses on despite ‘no takers’ in first online surgery

Rather than taking to the streets like usual, councillors Mark Lillicrop (Lib Dem, Thatcham West) and Paul Field (Ind, Thatcham Central) moved online for their latest council surgery.

The town council is in the process of trialing these new online surgeries in an attempt to reach a wider audience.

However, despite their efforts, there has not yet been a noticeable interest among residents to attend these virtual meet ups.

Nevertheless, Mr Lillicrop called it a “good experiment” and said: “We attempted it and we were in the right place at the right time.”

In a full town council meeting, held on January 31, he told councillors: “We didn’t actually get any takers on this occasion. We still felt, in conclusion, that this is a good way to proceed, doing occasional online surgeries.”

He added: “We will discuss it again; there are other considerations to be made, like publicising it, maybe in a way that’ll attract an online audience.

"We need to let people know it’s going on, potentially bringing other guests, or surgery members, into meetings.

“There’s opportunity there for people to come along and raise points and raise questions.”

The next online council surgery will be in early March and will be publicised in the council’s latest newsletter, nearer the time.