Council introduce live audio streaming at meetings
By Lucy Ashton
West Dunbartonshire Council has introduced live audio streaming of every Council and some committee meetings.
The pilot project, which will run for a year initially, will mean residents can listen to discussions on important community issues without being present at the meeting.
The audio clips can be played back through laptop and desktop computers, as well as through smart phones.
When the meeting closes, the audio files will remain available for 12 months so residents can listen at their own convenience. The first available meeting was last week’s Full Council. Meetings at both Church Street, Dumbarton and Clydebank Town Hall will be available.
Councillor Ian Dickson, above right, Convener of Corporate Services, said: “As a Council we are committed to being open and accessible, so we welcome the introduction of this service which allows us to provide our residents with the opportunity to listen to a real-time broadcast of our committee meetings, or to listen later at a time that suits them.
“It makes it much easier for the people who live and work in West Dunbartonshire to stay informed about Council decisions that may affect them and it may encourage them to become more involved in local democracy.”
To access the audio-stream of today’s meeting or any in the future, please visit: www.west-dunbarton.gov.uk/council/councillors-and-committees/live-broadcast/
- To get a flavour of what a council meeting is actually like, please read the Notebook column below. As for “open and accessible,” you can make up your own mind about that too. We would have asked how much this new venture cost the cash-strapped council, but they refuse to answer our questions.