Thanet council will live stream its next meeting on April 23 at 5pm.
This month local authorities in England were handed new powers to hold public meetings virtually by either video or telephone conferencing technology.
Thanet council held its first meeting, of the Licensing Board, under the new regulations last Tuesday (April 14) and has been sharing its experiences with neighbouring authorities.
Its next online meeting will be of the Cabinet and will be live streamed via the following weblink: TDC Cabinet 23 April 2020 meaning that people can watch live on a computer or mobile device.
Thanet council leader Rick Everitt said: “It’s fantastic that our Democratic Services team has implemented a virtual solution so quickly and that Thanet is among the local authorities leading the way on this. Enabling decision making to continue during this period of social distancing is an important part of the council continuing its work on behalf of residents.
“Members of the public and media are able to tune into the meeting via the live stream link available on our website where they will also find the agenda pack. For many of our residents who might not ordinarily come to these meetings, online streaming may be a good way for them to witness first hand how decisions at the council are made.”
The live streams from public council meetings will be recorded and available to view again on the council’s YouTube page shortly after. If people have feedback following the meeting, email [email protected].
The two key items on Cabinet’s agenda are the adoption of the Thanet Destination Management Framework looking at a five year plan for isle tourism and the Thanet Local Plan following the publication of the Inspectors’ report.
Cabinet’s recommendations on the Local Plan will then be considered by the Overview & Scrutiny Panel and ultimately by Full Council, which is the final decision-making body.
I think this is a great idea. I wonder if these sessions could be signed for people who are Deaf. This is an equality issue and I think many people will want to see and hear what happens in our Council, especially during these difficult and challenging times.
Far quicker and cheaper to use machine learning and, as it’s being uploaded to a pre-existing YouTube account, use YouTube’s free English captioning service, which can be reviewed before publishing.
General accessibility for the public to these meetings has always been a problem for everyone who has a full time job. This has prevented accountability and meant local politics always feels remote & irrelevant. This should represent a permanent change that can evolve, as it is fine-tuned, rather than a stop-gap solution that is subsequently disposed of.
I agree with this. TDC need to move with the times and offer live streaming of meetings as a permanent feature of Council meetings to increase interest and participation. The worst thing that can happen is for things to go back to normal after lockdown ends.
I’m sure plenty of Councillors read this site. Can you make it happen ?
Regarding the Equality issue, one would assume that as this is a new way of delivering services then someone at TDC will have completed an Equality Assessment which is signed off by a senior staff member. It may be worth having a look at that to make sure the needs of our deaf community have been properly considered.
Are we allowed to comment on this story, Kathy?