Wednesday 29 August 2007

Bid to broadcast Council meetings

Liberal Democrats on Redcar & Cleveland Council have submitted a motion calling on the Council to broadcast meetings of Full Council on the Authority's website.

Councillor Margaret Wilson (pictured), the proposer of the motion, said: "The Council already has the technology to do this and it will give the public the opportunity to see the Councillors they elected in action. It will also provide an accurate record of the proceedings."

Seconder of the motion, Councillor Joyce Benbow, said: "We want the Council to be open and transparent. Most people are not able to attend Council meetings but will be interested to follow the debates on their PC in the comfort of their own home."

Ian Swales, Lib Dem Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Redcar said: "I am delighted that the Lib Dem Councillors are proposing the live recording of Council meetings. It is already done by Parliament and a number of other Councils. It is a step in the right direction."

3 comments:

Tristan said...

Definitely a good idea.

I think its Estonia where cabinet meetings are webcast (apart from classified info) and all transcripts put up online.

I'd love to see that in the UK, but I suspect it would lead to even more 'sofa government'...

Anonymous said...

of course meetings used to in the evnings after normal work hours, so members of the public could attend. i believe your lot changed that chris.

Chris Abbott said...

Asctually Anonymous, evening meetings of the Council were introduced under the Coalition but they were even less well attended by the public, so they reverted back to 2pm as they were under Labour.