Web Casting Council Meetings

Back from the last full council meeting of this four year period (only a budget meeting to go) and it was an interesting experience. There's lots of unrelated things going on so, for instance, I took part in a presentation with Lewisham CND to the Mayor for being part of the Mayors for Peace movement where the Mayor graciously thanked Darren Johnson for helping make this happen.

Then you have a whole heap of correspondence some of which seems utterly unintelligible or irrelevant and others of which seems extremely important and are passed over in far too little detail. Then there was a closed session on the Catford Centre where we were all kicked out for half an hour then invited back in.

And so it goes on. But despite the fact that council proceedings are probably rather difficult to follow I still think it's a great thing that the council agreed to begin web-casting their meetings to allow accessibility for those who can't make the meetings, or have issues with disability.

We could also hope that it might improve the way councillors relate to each other, although it should be sad it was all very polite and businesslike tonight. Having councillors on record in this way would help electors and the press hold them to account for their actions at meetings that few of them would have otherwise attended.

The Greens moved the motion, having accepted a sensible amendment from the Lib Dems, and the motion slipped through uncontroversially - which just goes to show the parties can work together when they try.