Lisburn and Castlereagh City Council consider pulling the plug on live streaming

The ‘efficiency’ initiative went before Lisburn and Castlereagh City Council’s (LCCC) corporate committee on October 12 for consideration by councillors, writes Local Democracy Reporter Donal McMahon.Recorded written minutes of members’ debates are also due to be edited out with any audio removed after two years on the council website. Currently all LCCC meetings are broadcast live online.The recommendations were presented in a report by LCCC head of corporate communications, Frances Byrne seeking “increased transparency” and to save the local authority new running costs post Covid.The proposal states: “Operational cost will now have a base line of £6,455 per year as going forward technicians from the arts centre will return back to a full programme of activities post pandemic.“An additional member service officer is also required to operate the PA. To meet the objective of increased transparency, mindful of the need to keep costs to a minimum, the following is recommended.“As audio will be provided on the council website it is proposed that noted minutes are also to be streamlined and simplified with members discussions and questions not detailed unless specifically requested.“This part of the proposal will not include the planning committee. Full council to continue to be live streamed as generally over 20 people watching. Web-casts of these meetings to be available for two years.“Committee meetings to no longer be live streamed as generally fewer than 10 people watching, with up to four being council staff. This will remove the additional cost of the technician.“Audio recordings will be produced for all committee meetings and made available for two years on the council website.”The report also outlines that legal advice was brought in by the council in regard to any potential data protection issues, though it states none were found.Should the proposal be supported at the Lisburn and Castlereagh City Council’s (LCCC) corporate committee meeting it will go on to full council for further debate to gain official approval.