THE move to online meetings has not gone entirely smoothly, with a committee chairman describing it as a "learning curve."

Due to restrictions on public meetings, many Councils have been forced to switch to online meetings.

This morning Bradford Council held its first online planning meeting when the Regulatory and Appeals Committee discussed a number of applications via their computers.

At times the process was slowed by poor connections, the inability to load slides, and speakers forgetting to switch their microphones or cameras on.

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At one point an objector to an application was unable to maintain a web connection, and so had to speak to the committee by an officers calling him, putting him on speaker-phone and holding his phone close to his computer.

Before that objector spoke, Chair of the committee Councillor David Warburton (Lab, Wyke) apologised and said: "With these online meetings it is a bit of a learning curve. Hopefully by the next meeting we will have moved further on."

The meeting was the first public planning meeting since March 5.