Posted: Fri 2nd Nov 2018

Video clips from council meeting webcasts to be allowed as councillors back new policy

Wrexham.com for people living in or visiting the Wrexham area
This article is old - Published: Friday, Nov 2nd, 2018

Councillors have backed a new policy that will make it easier to share what goes on during meetings – with the council leader stating his ambition that would see a greater range of council workings broadcast.

Members of the council’s democratic services committee yesterday discussed a new webcasting policy that would allow councillors could create their own clips and all meetings eventually uploaded to Youtube.

Cllr Malcolm King started the meeting by noting that the previous agreed plans to kit out a downstairs meeting room in the Guildhall with webcasting gear had been scrapped as spending ‘ten to fifteen thousand’ on the equipment was ‘difficult to justify’ in light of the cuts the council had to make.

Council Leader Mark Pritchard, who was also pushing for the roll out, was on the same page as Cllr King adding: “The chair is right we did discuss it, and in the company of officers as well. I believe the council chamber is the right place as cameras and audio are already there and it is the civic area.

“Another challenge for myself is to roll out cameras across into task and finish groups, planning policy meetings, wherever decisions are made there has to be accountability. It is important to be seen how we vote, and how we come to conclusions. If we do that it will make this a better council because of openness and transparency.”

With the new Cllr Pritchard and Cllr King agreement, a few light hearted comments were made about the ‘bromance’, with Cllr Pritchard referring to a previous ‘love hate relationship’, and Cllr King joining in the banter with “As they say you always hurt the ones you love”.

The debate progressed to more serious topics, with Cllr Bill Baldwin raising an issue that had been flagged to him by council officers.

“I have been contacted by officers that due to webcasting on certain current issues they have had heated personal comeback while walking through town,” he said.

“We have been asked if we would be happy to have our faces on webcasting but have we asked them? Officers are pictured taking some sharp issues and could be seen to be in support with their face on the webcast.”

The meeting was pointed to the webcasting policy and notice that is read out before any broadcast meeting, that appears to cover off their inclusion.

Cllr Mike Davies asked for specific clarity on the proposed new webcasting policy: “Reading this, can I take a clip of a meeting and rebroadcast what I have said in that meeting without asking permission?”

The historic answer was “yes”, with added information that the council’s own communication team sees such clipping of meetings as a possible valuable way to promote local democracy.

Cllr Davies thanked officers for a ‘really good piece of work’, adding a request that the current range of social media training given to councillors be expanded to include a guide to how to create video clips from meetings for their own use and publication.

Cllr Davies was also looked far into the future, suggesting social media could be used to collate public questions, topic requests and open up the scrutiny discussion.

Cllr Pritchard added: “Do not forget what we have done in a short period of time. It was started with a £40,000 grand from Welsh Government and we have paid for it from then. The next thing could be to have our own apps, todays world is a fast place.

“People do not have the time to come in for hours and observe a meeting, we need to be there for them. Technology has moved and is moving so fast and will move again.”

Speaking of technology and digital working, the debate moved to iPads, and ongoing issues some councillors have with the devices. Cllr Wright pointed out his ward work would be easier to manage if he was able to create folders for information: “There is still more to be done with iPads, I have been using one for six years and still finding out new things to do on it every week.

“I would prefer a tick list of ‘here is what it can do’ and then we know what we don’t know, I know it sounds silly but would be useful.”

Cllr Davies agreed asking for an ‘idiots guide’ for a specific troubleshooting area, and welcomed more training.

The committee approved the new policy (viewable at the footer of this PDF) and committee will be keeping an eye on progress, with it likely to be revisited in around a years time to see if the new policy is being used as intended.

A small working group made up of committee members is also due to be formed to look at how councillors can ‘promote what we do as a council’, which is part of their overall role.



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