Value for money and need for accountability raised during discussion of county council webcasting its meetings

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Value for money was weighed against the need for democratic transparency when West Sussex county councillors discussed the webcasting of meetings.

On Wednesday (May 10), governance committee members were asked to review a one-year trial of webcasting Health & Wellbeing Board meetings and recommend that it should continue wherever possible.

While the committee had no problems making the recommendation – which will be put to the next meeting of the full council – questions were asked about how much webcasting cost and whether it was value for money.

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The council has a contract costing £57,000 over four years which allows for 120 hours of webcasting.

Webcasting portalWebcasting portal
Webcasting portal

The usage overran by almost ten hours in 2022/23, so the plan is to increase the contract to 130 hours.

Jeremy Hunt (Con, Chichester North) said the numbers who watched were a ‘miniscule percentage’ of the county’s population.

While he didn’t think it gave ‘value for money’, he did understand why they did it.

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But Kate O’Kelly (Lib Dem, Midhurst) said: “It’s good for residents, good for staff and I’d like to see more of it – more committees and more of the inner workings of the council getting out into the community.”

In 2022/23, 43 meetings were webcast, attracting an average 188 views per meeting, either live or from the archive.

The recordings are kept for six years.

Bob Lanzer, chair of the Health & Wellbeing Board, was pleased with the recommendation to keep webcasting the Board’s meetings, adding: “I do believe that, since the pandemic, there’s a much greater public awareness about what heath and wellbeing means and its importance – a greater interest in the subject overall.”