A MOTION calling for full council meetings to be broadcast online has been rejected – with costs to do so estimated at totalling up to £35,000 a year.

The Labour-run authority currently streams cabinet and development management committee meetings live.

However, this is not the case for other committees.

At the full council meeting at the Parr Hall on Monday, the Conservatives put forward a motion.

The motion, proposed by Cllr Mark Jervis, stated that in order to meet its obligations for ‘openness and transparency’, the council resolves to record and broadcast full council meetings online in a similar way to that adopted for meetings of the development management committee and cabinet.

Cllr Jervis said: “Now I’ll let you into a secret, sometimes when I rise to propose a motion and despite its obvious merits, it’s probably more in hope than expectation, given the political make-up of this chamber.

“I hope that this motion is somewhat different and to that end I’ll outline a number of short bullet points in support of the proposal.

“People live busy lives, they have family commitments and it’s not straightforward for the public to attend Parr Hall at 6.30 on a Monday evening.”

He also said he thinks ‘exposure to full council proceedings online will encourage us all to improve the quality of debate‘.

Cllr Jervis added that ‘no cost is too high’ for openness and transparency.

Council leader Cllr Russ Bowden, Labour, says he is ‘not sure it does anything’ about the quality of debate and there is ‘no evidence whatsoever that people will engage’ through that system.

He also said the full council meets seven times a year and that he asked officers ‘what considerations are being made about broadcasting from this room’, with the estimated cost totalling £4,000 to £5,000 per meeting – a total of up to £35,000 a year.

He said: “Where’s that coming from?”

The motion was rejected after failing to get enough support.