Minutes for 'Webcast' debate -
The argument against permitting residents to watch Cllrs in action at Committee meetings has been fully discredited in previous posts on this subject.
It is still the case WE are paying for 30 hrs Webcasting.
Our Councillors are refusing to use the full 30hrs and we are not getting value for money from this contract.
Where are Audit & Scrutiny when you need them ?
Extract from -
MINUTE of EAST RENFREWSHIRE COUNCIL
Minute of Meeting held at 7.00pmin the Council Chamber, Council Headquarters, Giffnock, on 19 December 2018.
NOTICE OF MOTION No.4
736.
In accordance with Standing Order 25, the following notice of motion had been submitted by Councillor Macdonald, seconded by Councillor Aitken.
“That East Renfrewshire Council commences webcasting of all meetings of the Audit and Scrutiny Committee, Education Committee, Cabinet, Cabinet (Police and Fire) and Planning Committee/Local Review Body in addition to the present arrangements of webcasting of full council meetings utilising the full 30 hours per annum that it pays for within the current contract with Public-i.
That East Renfrewshire Council also broadcast the meetings of all committees previously mentioned plus meetings of the full council using live streaming on social media through it’s Facebook and Twitter social media pages from June 19th 2019 onwards and archive all of them on the council’s Youtube page for the each full term of the council.”
Councillor Ireland, seconded by Councillor Lafferty, moved as an amendment that:-
“East Renfrewshire Council will continue to webcast meetings of the full Council.”
Provost Fletcher invited Councillor Macdonald to speak to the terms of the motion.
Whilst referring to the importance of the electorate being able to see their elected representatives at Council meetings, Councillor Macdonald highlighted that a proportion of the Council’s contracted webcast hours were not being used resulting in a higher than necessary webcast cost per meeting.
He proposed that to improve openness and transparency the Council should extend the use of the webcasting system to cover those other meetings set out in his motion.
Councillor Macdonald stated that he had contacted Glasgow City Council to seek information on that authority’s webcasting arrangements and reported the results of his findings to the Council.
He also proposed that the Council make use of other forms of social media such as Facebook and Twitter as these were easy to access and provided the means to view meetings that were broadcast.
Outlining the benefits of using this form of social media, he emphasised that that there would be no cost to the Council apart from setting up the camera.
Concluding his remarks,he suggested that by making use of social media in this way it could save the Council £10,000 per annum by not having to pay for a webcast contract and that these savings could be used to organise an Armed Forces Fun Day in 2019.
In seconding the motion, Councillor Aitken referred to the criticism the Council received in the Best Value Report prepared by Audit Scotland,particularly the Council’s lack of transparency and stated that the motion as proposed was simply seeking approval for other meetings of the Council to be webcast to ensure that the Council was making proper use of the broadcast time it had available through the webcast contract.
Concluding his remarks,he emphasised that at present the Council was paying for services it was not using and called upon the Council to support the terms of the motion.
Responding to Councillor Aitken’s comments about Audit Scotland’s report,Councillor Ireland highlighted that the report he referred to had now been superseded and that Audit Scotland was now satisfied with the Council’s transparency arrangements.
She also referred to the recent decision by the Planning Applications Committee to put representations to applications for planning permission on line as a means of improving transparency.
Turning to the terms of the motion, Councillor Ireland stated that she had carried out some research into the matter and had found that 72% of councils in Scotland did not webcast their meetings.
She also highlighted thatat the recent meeting of Renfrewshire Council,the Council had voted two to one against webcasting other council meetings.
Concluding her remarks, she stated that the Council would require approximately 70 hours of webcast time to enable it to broadcast all the meetings proposed by Councillor Macdonald.
Furthermore, it would also involve additional staffing resources to manage the webcasting of meetings.
Seconding the terms of the amendment, Councillor Lafferty explained that initially he was sympathetic to the terms of the motion.
However, having spoken to the Council’s Democratic Services Manager he had been made aware of the additional staffing required to webcast each meeting and in view of this, he stated that he would prefer additional staffing resources being made available for the Audit and Scrutiny Committee rather than for webcasting of meetings.
In response to a question by Councillor Grant, the Democratic Services Manager confirmed that information on the viewing figures of meetings that had been webcast in the past was available and that he would send this to her in due course.
Councillor Miller stated that in his opinion the motion should have been submitted to the Council’s Budget meeting earlier in the year at which time a decision could have been taken by the Council as to whether it considered webcasting a priority.
He also indicated that he had been given details of the viewing figures from the meeting of the full Council in May 2018 and it was clear from this information that very few individuals had actually viewed the meeting.
Concluding his remarks, he stated that whilst he agreed that the Council should make use of the 30 hours of webcast time the other meetings proposed by Councillor Macdonald would use up the time at the expense of the time needed for meetings of the full Council.
Provost Fletcher invited Councillor Macdonald to sum up.
In summing up, Councillor Macdonald stated he did not subscribe to the argument put forward by Councillor Ireland regarding the decisions taken by other councils not to webcast their meetings as a valid reason why the Council should do the same.
He stated that at present the Council was wasting money by not making full use of the available webcast time.
Concluding his remarks, he proposed that the Council should engage with social media as this was the way forward and it would also avoid the Council having to pay for webcasting in the future.
On a vote being taken, 7 members voted for the motion and 9 voted for the amendment.
The amendment was accordingly declared carried and it was agreed that the Council would continue to webcast meetings of the full Council.
You can read the Full Council Minutes here -
www.eastrenfrewshire.gov.uk/CHttpHandler.ashx?id=23873&p=0 
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