Southwark Council's first live webcast - Monday 10th November, 7pm

Southwark Council's Tooley Street Offices

On Monday night Southwark will show its first ever live webcast of a council meeting. True, it's won't be challenging Game of Thrones or Downton Abbey in the ratings but it is an important step in opening up the democratic procedures of your council.

The meeting will be of the Overview & Scrutiny Committee which will be debating the borough's cycling strategy (which is currently being consulted on) and procurement. We will also be questioning Cabinet Member for Regeneration, Planning and Transport about issues across his remit.

The papers for the meeting are here. I don't have the link for the webcast page just yet but will publish it here and Tweet it as soon as I do.

My view is that the more people who can see what goes on in Southwark Council's meetings, the more they will reflect what is important to people in the borough. Many people simply don't have the time to come to Tooley Street to sit in on a meeting. Webcasts means that if there is an issue people are interested in they can watch the meeting and even participate via social media. (Suggested Twitter hashtag for the meeting #swklive) This also means that we will have a full recording of the meeting which can be posted online as a record of what was said.

This is something I promised to introduce when I took on the Chair on the Committee. The first webcast is only a pilot, but there are lots of examples of this being successful elsewhere so I'm hopeful that we can build on this first attempt.

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