North Tyneside Council has committed to recording and broadcasting all of its meetings to allow more scrutiny over the authority's decisions.
Both Labour and Conservative councillors agreed that the council should commit to making the council's decisions more open and transparent. The local Tory party put the motion forward and it was passed unanimously.
Tynemouth conservative councillor Lewis Bartoli said: "Tonight's meeting is being recorded, the public has spoken and councillors will have their views and decisions made and this meeting will be posted on YouTube for all of our residents to view. This is honest, open and transparent governance.
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"We can all be held to account for what we actually say and how we actually vote, rather than political spin or cleverly worded Facebook posts. The motion I am proposing extends this practice of recording and publishing meetings to those held by the cabinet, committees, and sub-committee.
"As councillors, we regularly attend meetings that are supposedly open to the public but do not see attendees, as they are often during the working day, require a knowledge of the structure and process of the council and its website, or require transport to and from council premises.
"These are meetings where planning decisions are made or the budget is scrutinised, these are the real decision-making forums for the council and the meetings that most affect our residents. We certainly have the skills and resources to do this, the real question is do we have the bravery to open ourselves up to the very people we are meant to represent."
Deputy Mayor Carl Johnson said that while the Labour Group had no issues with the amendment, it would be necessary to have a legal advisor present in recorded meetings.
Labour Cullercoats councillor Willie Samuel said: "There is no disagreement across this chamber that recording the meetings would be a good thing. The only difference is we believe we need to update the technology to do that moving forward.
"It's important that when meetings are broadcast that the entire meeting is broadcast so the public can see what has happened and not given edited highlights."
New recording and broadcasting equipment is scheduled to the tested and fitted in the authority's main chamber by May this year.
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