POLL: Would you watch a recording of a council meeting?

At the meeting of the full council on Tuesday (October 22), Rudgwick resident Sue Kornycky noted the council was asked a similar question in December 2012 and the public were told audio recordings would be considered as part of the new website. That has not happened.

Leader Ray Dawe explained putting the audio online had been tried, however the work involved in uploading it was time-consuming it was therefore not an efficient use of officers’ time. They also found it slowed down the website was not very popular. The January 22 meeting they did upload had just nine hits.

This debate comes after Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government Eric Pickles signed the Openness of Local Government Bodies Regulations Act 2014 in August.

It permits the public and the press to do their own audio and video recordings as well as send Tweets, update Facebook at any public meetings, including town and parish councils and fire and rescue authorities.

The district council records all its meetings and members of the public can request copies of these at any time. Mr Dawe said it was still an ambition of the council to put all its recording online.

West Sussex County Council provides webcasts of its full council meetings and other meetings of significant public interest. The public can watch them live or can play one back at a later date.

What do you think about recordings of meetings? Would you watch one or take a recording yourself? Vote in our poll to the right and leave your comments below.