++Updated++
B&NES (Bath and North East Somerset) Council have agreed to, ‘Examine the options for the remote access to Council meetings. This will provide the opportunity for people who are unable to attend a meeting to view and contribute to key local issues and decisions.’
The decision was made during the recent Safer and Stronger Communities Overview & Scrutiny Panel meeting and will mean that members of the public can view live meetings from a computer in their own home. The decision comes as part of an extensive ‘Review of Community Empowerment’ which examined means and ways of opening up the workings of Council to improve the flow of information with the public in a more meaningful and democratic manner.
The Communications team will examine the options for remote access. This will involve evaluating the Council website as one means of broadcasting information. A similar facility is well established by Bristol City Council. For the past 18 months webcasts of meetings have been viewed by the public in efforts to open up the workings of Council to a wider audience.
The Bristol City Council website explains that the 2-year pilot, supported by the EU’s e-Participate project, ‘webcasts a range of meetings to improve public access to our democratic processes, and to be more accountable to the citizens of Bristol.’
++Update++
Bristol City Council’s Information & Development Officer, Daniel Kemp, has supplied me with some further information regarding the effective deployment of such technology in Bristol.
“Our webcasting pilot began in 2007 and finishes in September this year. We regularly get an audience of over 150 live viewers for important meetings such as Full Council, and archive viewings of our meetings can range from 200 to over 1,000.”
“Our biggest live audience was 1,143 people who tuned in to see the debate on the Memorial Stadium proposals in April last year. We’ve noticed a reduction in the number of people who turn up to public meetings now the facility is available to view it from home or the office.”
Daniel explains how survey findings have indicated that the introduction of Webcasting has been well received by councillors, officers and the public alike. In their survey, conducted January 2009, 60% of people found it easy to access webcasts online. 76% of respondents agreed that webcasting made the council more open and accountable, and 89% are likely to watch future webcasts of the council.
Daniel Kemp adds: “We are very likely to continue webcasting after the pilot ends, dependent on securing funding for the project.”
The evidence is clear that it has added a much needed modernisation to the system, but as with everything, it is subject to funding. With purse strings ever tightening, is it a Council service that could be one of the first to be cut?
:: Article appeared in ‘The Week in’ newspaper 9th April, 2009.
