P-04-681 Allow public recording of local government meetings in Wales – Correspondence from the Petitioner to the Clerking team, 17.10.16

Dear Kayleigh,

I write in response to your email of 13th October and the attached letter from Leighton Andrews from January this year. The letter refers to the draft Local Government Bill which was put out to consultation last November. That Bill has now been shelved and along with it, as far as I am aware, the intention to make it compulsory for Local Authorities to broadcast meetings. Several Council throughout Wales already do this and it makes proceedings more accessible for a larger number of residents. However, in other areas people are being denied this opportunity Rhondda Cynon Taff Council on which I serve is one such example. Even though the public can come along to Council meetings the headquarters which house the Council meetings is quite a difficult place for many to get to as there is no public transport to it, and the timing of meetings make it impossible for some to attend. The public have a right to see their elected representatives in action. Minutes are published but they are extremely bland and only record decisions they do not provide a verbatim record of what was said by any one person or what position was taken by individual councillors. The previous Minister for Local Government obviously thought that there needed to be compulsory measures in place, it is a shame for that element of the Bill to be lost because some more contentious elements made the overall plan unworkable.

Mike