Last night [Wednesday 20th July 2022] at the meeting of the full Council, the Conservative Group presented a motion (Presented by Cllr. Peter Winkler and seconded by Cllr. Steve Anstee) asking for all council meetings, where possible, to be live streamed so that the public can see exactly how they are represented. I am glad to say that it received full, cross-party backing.
As a group we believe that it is important that we use the technology, which many of us have gotten used to using over lockdown, to open up council meetings and make our democratic processes more transparent and accessible.
Our motion read:
During the recent pandemic, people around the world adopted many new technologies and found new ways of working. Here in Rochdale members of this council embraced online meetings which were able to be live-streamed on the web, this technology brought wider transparency to our processes by helping the public to see how their elected members represent them. This council believes that this kind of transparency is vital for accountability and enhances our democratic process. This council, therefore, proposes that Officers be asked to explore the options to implement the live-streaming of all public meetings and those meetings held in public, in buildings with suitable technology as soon as possible, subject to feasibility, cost and resource implications.
We were pleased to see that our motion received full cross-party support and are looking forward to a time when meetings are made more accessible to everyone.
