IF you are interested in local government and never quite had the time to attend a meeting then you could watch them live on the internet now thanks to Webcasting.
The first meetings webcast by Buckinghamshire County Council took place last week when the Budget Scrutiny Challenge Group met to scrutinise the council’s proposed budget. Meetings were broadcast live from Monday to Wednesday. Webcasting of council meetings is part of a year long trial aimed at increasing public awareness and transparency of council decision-making.
David Shakespeare, Chairman of the Budget Scrutiny Group, said: “I’m pleased and really excited to have been involved in the first meetings broadcast live. Webcasting is going to open up local democracy in Buckinghamshire to a much wider and more diverse audience than ever before.
“We are committed to meeting residents’ needs and being open and transparent about our decision-making processes. Opening up council meetings for anyone to view online at any time is a really powerful way of achieving that.”
The meetings webcast this week are available to view via a recording archive on the webcast portal, at: http://www.buckscc.public-i.tv/core/portal/home
The next meeting to be webcast will be the Overview and Scrutiny Commissioning Committee on January 24, 2011 at 2.30 pm. A regular schedule of a number of committee meetings is planned to be webcast, both as a live transmission and available to watch afterwards on the webcast portal. Archived meeting webcasts will contain index points which will allow the viewer to move quickly to specific agenda items or speakers.
The twelve month trial will cost £18,628, including the installation of dedicated cameras in the meeting rooms.