Councillors vote against livestreaming public meetings pending consultation with residents and “further investigation into cost”

Runnymede Borough Council has ruled out the idea of making meetings available to watch online after judging it as “too expensive” and “lacking public interest”.

The motion was presented by Cllr Isabel Mullens, leader of the Runnymede Independent Residents' Group, who said it would “allow members of the public who, for whatever reason, cannot come to the council chamber, to see and hear the decision-making process”.

Cllr Mullens also told the Runnymede Borough Council meeting on 9 February that it was “an essential building block to modern democracy” and that it would help to reduce traffic omissions.

The meeting heard that proposals would cost £30,000 to buy hardware and a further £12,000 in annual running costs.

Scott Lewis, Conservative councillor for Woodham and Rowtown and vice chair of the overview and scrutiny committee, said he would not vote to spend that amount of money when there were front line services for residents that needed to be protected.

He said at the meeting that £30,000 was a “waste of the public purse” and would want to look at usage statistics before committing to any spending. He called for a proof of concept “to see if it works”, according to Surrey Live.

The motion was dismissed after a vote of 21 to 15 with one abstention.

Following the decision, Cllr Mullens said: “The Lib Dem group put a similar proposal to Full Council three years ago, and were told at the time we would get livestreaming soon. And here we are now hearing the same promises.

“The truth of the matter is that the Conservative majority are scared of transparency. They are terrified of people seeing them in operation.

“At Full Council, one Conservative councillor said he could arrange livestreaming for next to nothing; he said my proposal was a complete waste of money. Another said that from his experience it would cost a quarter of a million pounds (in spite of Runnymede officers having costed it at £30,000). They are falling over themselves to find a reason for criticising our very reasonable proposals.”

Commenting on the reasons for the council’s decision, Cllr Scott Lewis said: “Ultimately inflation has hit council services as well as other parts of society and with costs going up 5-6% and council tax going up 2.99%, the gap between income and spending made this a challenging year to take anything but essential additional spending into the budget."

He added that the position at the council meeting “was that we would explore further ways to run a low / no cost proof of concept that would then inform a future implementation”.

Following the decision, Cllr Sam Jenkins, Runnymede Borough Councillor for Egham Town, said on Twitter: “Such a missed opportunity to support residents with accessibility needs, including many who want to engage with local democracy in action at Runnymede, the Borough where the Magna Carta was signed.”

Lottie Winson