A Northern Ireland council is to switch off its livestreamed debates to the public and media - but claims the move is for “increased transparency”.
The “efficiency” initiative was proposed at Lisburn and Castlereagh City Council’s (LCCC) corporate committee (October 12) with councillors backing the proposal on how democratic debates will now be recorded.
The recommendations were presented in a report by LCCC head of corporate communications, Frances Byrne seeking “increased transparency” and to save the local authority running costs of £6,455 per year.
Read more: Lisburn Castlereagh Council set to pull the plug on live decision making.
There have been no plans put in place to make future online access available to the media. Written minutes of the six committee meetings of the council will also be “streamlined” with discussions between elected representatives on key debates left unrecorded on papers “unless specifically requested”.
Audio recordings of committees will instead be available on the council website for a term of two years.
Lisburn North councillor, Nicholas Trimble (UUP) made a request for audio minutes to have highlighted notes to mark timing on each items of debate.
He said: “If minutes are going to be on audio only, would it be an idea for items to be time stamped for ease of reference? If meetings are two to three hours long, it could provide a quality of life management.”
Ms Byrne responded: “The technical aspects of this are being explored and we will endeavour to do that. We do need agreement on part one (to end live streaming online) before we can move to part two (streamlining minutes).”
The proposals, which will not include the planning committee, were approved by the council members with no objections. The report will now go to the LCCC full council to seek to be ratified.
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