{"id":31217,"date":"2021-02-11T11:18:05","date_gmt":"2021-02-11T11:18:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shefnews.co.uk\/?p=31217"},"modified":"2021-02-11T11:18:05","modified_gmt":"2021-02-11T11:18:05","slug":"sheffield-city-council-sees-its-first-zoom-protest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shefnews.co.uk\/index.php\/2021\/02\/11\/sheffield-city-council-sees-its-first-zoom-protest\/","title":{"rendered":"Sheffield City Council sees it\u2019s first zoom protest"},"content":{"rendered":"

Councillors of the Liberal Democrat Party at Sheffield City Council changed their zoom backgrounds in protest to a decision made by the Lord Mayor.<\/strong><\/p>\n

On 3 February 2020 at the full council meeting, Labour, Lord Mayor Tony Downing stopped the public from personally asking questions to councillors and had the council officers read out questions on behalf of the questioners.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cGiven the logistics of hosting a virtual meeting and the length of the questions I do not want to see public questions only asked on a first come first serve basis.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis will ensure a more streamlined process and crucially more time for an answer.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cEnsuring that elected representatives are answerable to members of the public is a key part of the full council,\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHowever, it should be noted that the meeting is scheduled for three and a half hours, with many other items on the agenda.\u201d<\/p>\n

Coun Shaffaq Mohammed said: \u201cThe council had made this change without consulting anyone. They did not talk to me, as leader of the opposition or anyone else I am aware of and decided at 11 am to email 15 people who had taken the time out of their day, to inform them about the change.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were 15 people asking 30 plus questions and I had 5 people contact me either backing out of questioning or complaining about what happened.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cBecause of COVID-19 the council has stopped all notice of motions for debate to totally dominate and dictate what can and cannot be discussed.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe council had stopped the opposition from tabling anything and it seems that they want to cut out even the public now and stop them from asking their own questions.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you close down discussion debates there is no other way of holding the council to account.\u201d<\/p>\n

Coun Mohammed said that the party councillors were frustrated and unhappy with the fact that questions were paraphrased and hence changed their background to an image that read \u201cstop gagging the public\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Coun Shaffaq Mohammed with the zoom background used on the day.<\/p><\/div>\n

In retaliation to the zoom backgrounds, Labour Coun Mazher Iqbal said: \u201cWe do not allow placards in the council chamber and the same principle should apply here.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Lord Mayor asked the opposition councillors to desist from presenting their zoom backgrounds but added: \u201cI can\u2019t tell you what to do in your own homes\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Opposition councillors used “Stop gagging the Public on Questions” background after the Lord Mayor’s controversial decision earlier in the month<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":144,"featured_media":31248,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31217","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nSheffield City Council sees it\u2019s first zoom protest - ShefNews<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/shefnews.co.uk\/index.php\/2021\/02\/11\/sheffield-city-council-sees-its-first-zoom-protest\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Sheffield City Council sees it\u2019s first zoom protest - ShefNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Opposition councillors used "Stop gagging the Public on Questions" background after the Lord Mayor's controversial decision earlier in the month\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/shefnews.co.uk\/index.php\/2021\/02\/11\/sheffield-city-council-sees-its-first-zoom-protest\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"ShefNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-02-11T11:18:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"joc19md\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"joc19md\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/shefnews.co.uk\/index.php\/2021\/02\/11\/sheffield-city-council-sees-its-first-zoom-protest\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/shefnews.co.uk\/index.php\/2021\/02\/11\/sheffield-city-council-sees-its-first-zoom-protest\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"joc19md\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/shefnews.co.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/06069b595a24dda2020195508754a1a0\"},\"headline\":\"Sheffield City Council sees it\u2019s first zoom protest\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-02-11T11:18:05+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/shefnews.co.uk\/index.php\/2021\/02\/11\/sheffield-city-council-sees-its-first-zoom-protest\/\"},\"wordCount\":411,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/shefnews.co.uk\/index.php\/2021\/02\/11\/sheffield-city-council-sees-its-first-zoom-protest\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"\",\"articleSection\":[\"News\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/shefnews.co.uk\/index.php\/2021\/02\/11\/sheffield-city-council-sees-its-first-zoom-protest\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/shefnews.co.uk\/index.php\/2021\/02\/11\/sheffield-city-council-sees-its-first-zoom-protest\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/shefnews.co.uk\/index.php\/2021\/02\/11\/sheffield-city-council-sees-its-first-zoom-protest\/\",\"name\":\"Sheffield City Council sees it\u2019s first zoom protest - ShefNews\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/shefnews.co.uk\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/shefnews.co.uk\/index.php\/2021\/02\/11\/sheffield-city-council-sees-its-first-zoom-protest\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/shefnews.co.uk\/index.php\/2021\/02\/11\/sheffield-city-council-sees-its-first-zoom-protest\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-02-11T11:18:05+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/shefnews.co.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/06069b595a24dda2020195508754a1a0\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/shefnews.co.uk\/index.php\/2021\/02\/11\/sheffield-city-council-sees-its-first-zoom-protest\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/shefnews.co.uk\/index.php\/2021\/02\/11\/sheffield-city-council-sees-its-first-zoom-protest\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/shefnews.co.uk\/index.php\/2021\/02\/11\/sheffield-city-council-sees-its-first-zoom-protest\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"\",\"contentUrl\":\"\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/shefnews.co.uk\/index.php\/2021\/02\/11\/sheffield-city-council-sees-its-first-zoom-protest\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/shefnews.co.uk\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Sheffield City Council sees it\u2019s first zoom protest\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/shefnews.co.uk\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/shefnews.co.uk\/\",\"name\":\"ShefNews\",\"description\":\"Bringing you all the news from across Sheffield\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/shefnews.co.uk\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/shefnews.co.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/06069b595a24dda2020195508754a1a0\",\"name\":\"joc19md\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/shefnews.co.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"joc19md\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/shefnews.co.uk\/index.php\/author\/joc19md\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Sheffield City Council sees it\u2019s first zoom protest - ShefNews","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/shefnews.co.uk\/index.php\/2021\/02\/11\/sheffield-city-council-sees-its-first-zoom-protest\/","og_locale":"en_GB","og_type":"article","og_title":"Sheffield City Council sees it\u2019s first zoom protest - ShefNews","og_description":"Opposition councillors used \"Stop gagging the Public on Questions\" background after the Lord Mayor's controversial decision earlier in the month","og_url":"https:\/\/shefnews.co.uk\/index.php\/2021\/02\/11\/sheffield-city-council-sees-its-first-zoom-protest\/","og_site_name":"ShefNews","article_published_time":"2021-02-11T11:18:05+00:00","author":"joc19md","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"joc19md","Estimated reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/shefnews.co.uk\/index.php\/2021\/02\/11\/sheffield-city-council-sees-its-first-zoom-protest\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/shefnews.co.uk\/index.php\/2021\/02\/11\/sheffield-city-council-sees-its-first-zoom-protest\/"},"author":{"name":"joc19md","@id":"https:\/\/shefnews.co.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/06069b595a24dda2020195508754a1a0"},"headline":"Sheffield City Council sees it\u2019s first zoom protest","datePublished":"2021-02-11T11:18:05+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/shefnews.co.uk\/index.php\/2021\/02\/11\/sheffield-city-council-sees-its-first-zoom-protest\/"},"wordCount":411,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/shefnews.co.uk\/index.php\/2021\/02\/11\/sheffield-city-council-sees-its-first-zoom-protest\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"","articleSection":["News"],"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/shefnews.co.uk\/index.php\/2021\/02\/11\/sheffield-city-council-sees-its-first-zoom-protest\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/shefnews.co.uk\/index.php\/2021\/02\/11\/sheffield-city-council-sees-its-first-zoom-protest\/","url":"https:\/\/shefnews.co.uk\/index.php\/2021\/02\/11\/sheffield-city-council-sees-its-first-zoom-protest\/","name":"Sheffield City Council sees it\u2019s first zoom protest - ShefNews","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/shefnews.co.uk\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/shefnews.co.uk\/index.php\/2021\/02\/11\/sheffield-city-council-sees-its-first-zoom-protest\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/shefnews.co.uk\/index.php\/2021\/02\/11\/sheffield-city-council-sees-its-first-zoom-protest\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"","datePublished":"2021-02-11T11:18:05+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/shefnews.co.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/06069b595a24dda2020195508754a1a0"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/shefnews.co.uk\/index.php\/2021\/02\/11\/sheffield-city-council-sees-its-first-zoom-protest\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/shefnews.co.uk\/index.php\/2021\/02\/11\/sheffield-city-council-sees-its-first-zoom-protest\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/shefnews.co.uk\/index.php\/2021\/02\/11\/sheffield-city-council-sees-its-first-zoom-protest\/#primaryimage","url":"","contentUrl":""},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/shefnews.co.uk\/index.php\/2021\/02\/11\/sheffield-city-council-sees-its-first-zoom-protest\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/shefnews.co.uk\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Sheffield City Council sees it\u2019s first zoom protest"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/shefnews.co.uk\/#website","url":"https:\/\/shefnews.co.uk\/","name":"ShefNews","description":"Bringing you all the news from across Sheffield","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/shefnews.co.uk\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-GB"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/shefnews.co.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/06069b595a24dda2020195508754a1a0","name":"joc19md","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/shefnews.co.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"joc19md"},"url":"https:\/\/shefnews.co.uk\/index.php\/author\/joc19md\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shefnews.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31217","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shefnews.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shefnews.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shefnews.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/144"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shefnews.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31217"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shefnews.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31217\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shefnews.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shefnews.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31217"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shefnews.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31217"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shefnews.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31217"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}