A ROW has erupted over whether a Stoke Parish Council meeting should be broadcast via Facebook Live tonight (Monday).
During the Stoke Parish Council meeting in Stoke Heath last month, Coun Dean Smith confirmed his intention to record tonight’s meeting and to broadcast it via Facebook Live in order to ‘engage more with the electorate’.
But all of the other remaining councillors were strongly opposed to Coun Smith’s suggestion and, he claimed, they had threatened to walk out of the meeting if it went ahead.
Coun Smith said: “In every parish meeting there is 15 minutes worth of public question time and we found only one or two people attended.
“Broadcasting the meeting through Facebook Live is a chance to engage with the public more and to bring the council into the 21st Century.
“Councillors are there to represent the public and we need to be open with them.”
In response to the request Coun John Ellis, the vice-chairman of Stoke Parish Council, said: “There is no ruling to stop the filming of the meeting but the rest of the council are against it.
“He cannot film the public, he can only film the councillors but, to be honest, it will only be a short meeting to decide the precept.”
He added if there was something on the agenda which was considered to be more in the public interest then maybe the authority would look at the situation again in the future.
A Bromsgrove District Council spokesperson said people were within their rights to film a live meeting but, as a courtesy, should let the clerk know so they could be accommodated and not disrupt proceedings.
The only thing that could not be done was a live commentary on what was going on – the meeting had to be taken as it happened, the spokesperson added.
