Planning committees should be held ’virtually’ in public during the coronavirus crisis, an MHK suggested in Tynwald.

Two planning committees have sat remotely by conference call since emergency restrictions on gatherings have been in place.

Garff MHK Daphne Caine asked DEFA Minister Geoffrey Boot how he will ensure planning committee sittings are publicly accessible while they continue to meet remotely.

The Minister said while the public currently cannot attend hearings, a method of holding meetings that was fair to applicants and objectors had been found quickly to stop the build up of undetermined applications.

It was decided to ’keep it simple’ with a traditional conference call. A meeting was held in this way on May 5 and had operated very successfully, determining 21 applications that had accumulated, said Mr Boot.

A second meeting was held on Monday.

Agendas and reports were published earlier to allow further comments to be made in writing, in effect replacing the oral representations that would have been made at meetings.

’It is considered there is a high level of transparency in the process,’ said Mr Boot.

Mrs Caine challenged this, querying whether it was appropriate to have no public input except in writing 10 days ahead. She suggested a technological solution could be found where the public could listen in to a virtual sitting and participate by advance arrangement.

Mr Boot insisted the system was ’fit for purpose’ but ’may evolve going forward’.

But Douglas East MHK Chris Robertshaw accused him of being ’complacent and dismissive’. He said if Tynwald could operate virtually it was ’pretty miserable’ that the same could not be arranged for planning applicants.