Highland Council's last full meeting of 2020 delayed amid major IT problems
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In what is the latest in a series of serious IT problems the last full meeting of Highland Council has been unable to start this morning.
The council was due to start at 10am but and eventually got under way 45 minutes later.
However, just 45 of 73 councillors were able to get online for the remote meeting, which has now been delayed at least until midday.
The council's IT provider Wipro said it was having technical problems with its Virtual Private Network (VPN).
A VPN is typically used to make it difficult to trace and therefore hack into a computer system.
Councillors were due to discuss a number of major issues, not least the updated plan to invest in infrastructure.
Convener Bill Lobban said: "Well, since there are only 45 members able to log in to the meeting, the meeting is postponed until 12 noon.
"I would advise you to stay logged on if you can."
A council spokeswoman said: "Our Information and Communications Technology provider Wipro has apologised for our VPN connection issue this morning.
"They have a technical team working to resolve this as a priority. Meanwhile, the council meeting has been delayed until 12 noon."
The multi-million pound Wipro contract is due to be brought in-houses.
The local authority insisted this was based on economic grounds but it is understood significant under-performance played a major role in the decision.
