Historic first as Telford & Wrekin Council meeting is streamed live
The first ever live streaming of a full Telford & Wrekin Council meeting took place last night – with 121 interested residents watching democracy in action live online; and a similar number viewing the meeting later that night.
The streaming took place via the independent hyperlocal community website lightmoorlife.co.uk.
It was backed with discussions on Twitter and Facebook while the meeting was in progress, with tweets hashtagged #TelfordWrekin.
It is planned to make the live streaming of full council and other meetings a regular event going forward as Telford & Wrekin Council continues its drive to be more as transparent as possible.
The council is already one of the few authorities in the country that declares any expenditure over £100, via its web page www.telford.gov.uk/opencouncil.
Jake Bennett and Mark McCreddin, bloggers and organisers of the filming for Lightmoor Life, said: “We felt that this was a worthwhile experiment in civic engagement and it went very well. We are always looking for new ways to engage our community."
“We are delighted that so many people watched the stream of the meeting and hopefully we can build an audience for it with future meetings.”
Councillor Kevin Guy, mayor of the borough of Telford and Wrekin and chairman of the Full Council meeting, said: “We have always said we are committed to allowing residents as much access to council business as we possibly can and this is a great example of that.
“I would like to thank Lightmoor Life for both their interest in the meeting and the professionalism of the broadcast that was streamed.”
