100th Webcast by Bristol CC
Bristol City Council has just celebrated its 100th webcast in an e-democracy pilot designed to bring greater openness and transparency to local democracy in the city. The council has joined nine councils from across Europe in webcasting democratic meetings and debates in a European Union (EU) funded project called E-participate.
Cllr Barbara Janke, Leader of the Council, said: “There is cross-party agreement that webcasting offers enormous benefits to local people and to local democracy. It makes the council more open and transparent, enabling Bristol citizens to see their councillors at work and helping them understand the way local democracy works. We will be continuing with webcasting and looking for new ways to use it to enable the people of Bristol to play a greater part in local decision making.”
The initiative has enabled residents to go online – at a time and place convenient to them – to watch broadcasts of Bristol’s full Council and Cabinet meetings, some key planning and scrutiny committee meetings and a number of other public events.
The webcasts can be viewed on the city council’s website at www.bristol.gov.uk/webcasting
As well as watching the meetings and events live, residents can review them afterwards and even jump to the speaker or part of the meeting that interests them most.
Viewers also have access to all the reports being considered at the meeting. Webcasts are held on the system for six months to give people plenty of time to review them.
The council’s first 100 webcasts represent over 228 hours of programming and have been watched by just over 28,000 viewers. The webcasts have covered many historic events in the recent democratic life of the city including the setting of the 2009/10 budget, the election of the council’s new leadership and the State of the City conference.
The pilot has been well received by the people of Bristol. Feedback shows that 79% of viewers thought “webcasting is making the council more open and accountable for its actions”, whilst 63% agree that it has helped them gain a better understanding of the work of the council. One viewer described webcasting as: “A huge step forward for open local democracy in Bristol”
