Extended meeting webcasts and relaxing of rules to be brought in at Wrexham Council

Keeping up to date with decisions made by Wrexham Council will soon be more accessible to the public with plans to stream more meetings online in the new year.

Currently only a handful of meetings are webcast each month, predominantly planning meetings, executive board and full council – with a number of ‘public interest’ scrutiny meetings streamed on the council website during the year.

Wrexham Council have been webcasting the above meetings since 2014 via the Public-i system, after a successful pilot scheme was carried out during the previous year.

However from January 2019 more meetings are set to be webcast and members of the public / councillors will be able to “use and re-use the council webcast material that is available to download”.

In October 2018 Wrexham.com reported that Wrexham Council’s outdated policy on who can access and use video clips from meetings is set to be updated to come into line with other local authorities, Westminster and the Senedd.

However material cannot be used for: “satirical purposes, advertising, promotion, commercial sponsorship, publicity for commercial purposes or financial gain”.

A report outlining the proposals ahead of Wednesday’s full council meeting, states: “Clips of council copyright protected material taken from Council webcasting may be downloaded and stored on your equipment free of charge without requiring specific permission but always subject to and in accordance with these terms.

“Any such downloaded clips remain subject to council copyright and you are granted a non-exclusive, non-transferable, non-assignable, terminable royalty free licence to download and store such clips on your equipment.

To keep control with Wrexham Council there is a clause that notes: “We may terminate this licence at any time by notice to you. If we terminate this licence, you must cease using and irretrievable delete any downloaded clips in your possession or over which you have control.

“You may edit the content of downloaded clips into different formats to enable viewing and you may take steps to improve the accessibility of material, including the addition of captions and/or subtitles, subject to and in accordance with these terms.

There is room for future arguments, as the terms attempt to keep the use of the video in the formal manner that it is produced however we predict deciding which sentences to quote or trim from in an edit will likely be seen as misleading by political opponents and create the odd complaint: “Material must not be adapted, altered or manipulated in any other way. Any downloading, reproduction and or use of Council copyright protected material is subject to the material being reproduced accurately, not in a misleading context and not in a manner that may bring the council, members or council officers into disrepute.”

So for example sections of the meeting of interest can be shared on social media / included in Wrexham.com articles as part of the council’s new protocol.

The move is a long way from 2013 when tweeting was still banned at one point, although now as was then, still pictures or video filmed by third parties will still be banned from inside a meeting.

The changes will also see the streaming of more scrutiny meetings, subject to the availability of the main chamber where the webcasting camera equipment is installed.

This means that members of the public will be able to keep an eye on decisions and view points made away from the likes of executive board and full council – with scrutiny often covering the likes of the management of the town’s markets, updates on local schools, progress with the installation of kitchens and bathrooms in council houses and much more.

It is also noted that work is “ongoing at present arranging for the longer term storage of webcasts, beyond the six months provided through Public-i, together with uploading of webcasts to the Council’s YouTube channel for longer term viewing to be available.”

A decision on the new protocol – which can be viewed here – will be discussed at Wednesday’s full council meeting at 4pm.

Of course, the meeting will also be webcast on the Wrexham Council website however until January we won’t be able to create any clips of proceedings.