£400k bill for Lancashire council meeting net broadcasts ; "It is about open government and I think it is value for money for people."
Wednesday, May 07, 2008
Preston Citizen: £400k bill for Lancashire council meeting net broadcasts
By Chris Hopper
COUNTY bosses have spent almost £400,000 on broadcasting their coun-cil meetings over the internet, the Lancashire Telegraph can reveal.
Figures released under the Freedom of Information Act show Lancashire County Council chiefs have splashed an average of £56,000 a year of public money on putting meetings on the authority's website.
But while one campaign group accused County Hall of having "the wrong priorities", the council's leader claimed the policy was about "open government" and viewing figures were good.
Since September 2002, the council has pledged £393,005 to the experiment, including £136,775 over three years up to 2009.
County Hall said up to 1,500 people a month log on to watch the meetings online.
But Matthew Elliott, chief executive of the TaxPayers' Alliance, said: "The council clearly has the wrong priorities.
"People are sick of paying record levels of council tax and getting poor services in return.
"Now we know where at least some of the money goes."
However, County Coun Hazel Harding, leader of the council, defended the policy and said: "It is about open government and I think it is value for money for people.
"If you think about the number of people who may be interested in our decisions, the number of hits we get is surprising."
County Coun Albert Atkinson, deputy leader of the county council's Conser-vative group, said: "We get a lot of feedback from it, but I did not think it cost that much.
"People do watch them because I get more than 1,000 hits a month on my personal website."
The county council, which has a budget this year of £684m, is the only authority in Lancashire to broadcast meetings over the internet.
It is understood that the money spent on putting meetings online goes on staff salaries and equipment costs.
A spokesman said: "The aim of webcasting is to increase transparency and the accessibility of meetings that take place at Lancashire County Council.
"It brings the democratic process closer to more people and webcasting certainly provides a unique opportunity to do this."
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