AN independent councillor says online meetings during the pandemic have created a level playing field for elected members and has branded Municipal Buildings 'intimidating'.

Lynne Quinn, who is also the council’s women’s champion, has said she prefers remote video conferences as debates feel fairer than they did when they were held in the chamber, which she insisted 'felt like a boys’ club'.

Since the coronavirus crisis struck last year, meetings have been held remotely via the Webex platform, but the council is currently in discussions about how to bring them back to the Greenock headquarters as restrictions ease.

A few weeks ago Labour councillor Robert Moran called for the return of face-to-face meetings as he claimed they were being drawn out by members experiencing connection issues.

But Councillor Quinn has said she has 'embraced' the new digital way of conducting business and feels more confident about speaking up.

She said: “I’ve found the digital world a lot easier.

“I found the chamber very intimidating, it’s got that old fashioned feel about it.

“Once we switched to the digital world, we all became equal squares.

"If we want to ask a question, we put it in the chat and we get addressed in that order.

“In the chamber, you put your light on and it’s about which light the chair has seen first. 

“It feels like more of a level playing field online and there’s something empowering, I think, in asking a question while you’re sat in your own safe space in your own house.”

Councillor Quinn also says the environment meetings are held in, along with their scheduling, felt to her as if they were systematically designed for men, who vastly outnumber women on the local authority.

She said: “The council is male-dominated and there were mostly male faces on the walls in the chamber.

“Even just the timing of meetings which are 3pm or 4pm seemed built for men.

"When you’ve got young kids that’s the worst possible time for a meeting.

“And when you look around the room it just doesn’t feel like you fit in sometimes, it’s a strange environment that feels formal and like a boys' club at times.

“I’ve totally embraced the digital forum and I’ve found it a lot easier to raise my points.”

Last month officers suggested they wouldn’t attempt to bring meetings back to the chamber until social distancing rules had been scrapped.

Not all councillors would be able to be in the room at the same time and there are fears holding hybrid meetings could cause division within political groups and be disadvantageous to smaller ones.

A phased return to the workplace – which was originally due to happen when the area moved to level 0 on Monday – has now been pushed back due to concerns about the Delta variant.