In a new initiative, the Isle of Wight council will be publishing online the recordings that they make of public council meetings.
For a while the Planning Committee meetings have been available, but now all public meetings will be included.
The first recording of a meeting to be uploaded was the Licensing (Determinations) Sub Committee held on 4 October. The recordings are split into separate sections and can be listened to by clicking on the Purple text links within the Minutes of the meeting, held within a PDF document.
The first released
Here’s an example from that first meeting (PDF), discussing licensing at the Ventnor Botanic Garden …
[audio:http://www.iwight.com/council/committees/Licensing%20(Determinations)%20Sub%20Committee/4-10-10/Recording/Ventnor%20Botanic.MP3]
Recordings are currently available, but are subject to a £20 fee. This fee will still be charged for those who need to hear them before it’s released online.
It’s expected that the audio recordings will be released at the same time as the Minutes of the meetings. The recording of a particular meeting will be available to listen to at least five working days before the same meeting is next held. For example, if the Full Council met on 10 November and the next Full Council is held on 8 December, the recording would be available on 30 November.
Live coverage on VentnorBlog
VentnorBlog has since Feb 2007 carried out live coverage of many of the Cabinet and Full Council meetings, giving people who aren’t able to attend the opportunity of keeping up with what’s happening in the meeting – and discuss it online.
Trouble at other councils
There have been concerns at other councils around the UK that recordings of meetings aren’t freely available. One of the strangest has been in Brighton where the council carries out video recordings of their meetings.
Brighton councillor, Jason Kitcat, released a recording on to YouTube of a council meeting which he spoke at. For this he was reported and it was found that he had breached the Members Code of Conduct for doing this. Details of this bizarre situation are detailed on Count Culture.
These recordings are already freely available through Brighton council site
Thank goodness we don’t have problems with this on the Island.
