A councillor has slammed the “appalling” decision by Sefton Council not to live-stream its council meetings – claiming video technology could stop the “pantomime games” of councillors.
Sefton Liberal democrat deputy leader Cllr Leo Evans has asked Sefton Council to make its meetings viewable online – in keeping with other councils in Merseyside – since in-person meetings resumed after the pandemic.
His requests followed an earlier question put to council by Liberal Democrat leader Cllr John Pugh in 2019, where leaders said they would look into it with a view to implementing live streaming.
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However, when Cllr Evans asked last year at full council for an update on the plans, he was told it would be too costly – with council leader Cllr Ian Maher citing a figure of £100k to install the necessary equipment.
Cllr Evans asked the leader to provide a breakdown of those costs – but having failed to receive a response asked again at last week’s full council. Cllr Maher apologised for the delay in replying and stated the £100k figure was obtained from a neighbouring authority.
Cllr Maher said they had also “gone to market” and received quotes between £39k and £49k – but that this still proved too costly with “no budget” to cover the equipment.
Speaking to the LDRS about the issue, Cllr Evans said it was “appalling” that the council appeared to refuse to take the request seriously.
He said it was an “important democratic principle” that meetings be open to as many people as possible, and that while people could attend one of Sefton’s two town halls, the size of the borough and distance between the town halls – one in Bootle and the other in Southport – meant this was “unfeasible” for many.
Cllr Evans said: “This is an issue I’ve been aware of since being elected as we don’t have a high attendance of the public at meetings. It’s a democratic principle to be open and transparent and being able to see what councillors are doing holds some accountability to all of us.
Cllr Evans added that he “couldn’t fathom” the high cost quoted, which had “raised suspicions.”
He added that he felt if meetings were live streamed it would change the behaviour of some councillors.
Cllr Evans said: “We’ve had instances in the past few years where the behaviour of some councillors in meetings has been shocking – talking down, over the top, heckling. If you want to improve politics, people need to be having some form of streaming. If it’s all visible, it makes a difference, makes things civil – it could even stop the pantomime games.”
A Sefton Council spokesperson said Cllr Maher had addressed the points raised by Cllr Evans at the last full council meeting, adding that meeting agendas and minutes are available online in accordance with statutory requirements.
The spokesperson also said the public is welcome to attend most meetings held at either town hall and the council had not received any complaints from members of the public regarding the issue but if the budget situation improves, the council may look again at the issue.
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