Value for money and need for accountability raised during discussion of county council webcasting its meetings

On Wednesday (May 10), governance committee members were asked to review a one-year trial of webcasting Health & Wellbeing Board meetings and recommend that it should continue wherever possible.

While the committee had no problems making the recommendation – which will be put to the next meeting of the full council – questions were asked about how much webcasting cost and whether it was value for money.

The council has a contract costing £57,000 over four years which allows for 120 hours of webcasting.

The usage overran by almost ten hours in 2022/23, so the plan is to increase the contract to 130 hours.

Jeremy Hunt (Con, Chichester North) said the numbers who watched were a ‘miniscule percentage’ of the county’s population.

While he didn’t think it gave ‘value for money’, he did understand why they did it.

But Kate O’Kelly (Lib Dem, Midhurst) said: “It’s good for residents, good for staff and I’d like to see more of it – more committees and more of the inner workings of the council getting out into the community.”

In 2022/23, 43 meetings were webcast, attracting an average 188 views per meeting, either live or from the archive.

The recordings are kept for six years.

Bob Lanzer, chair of the Health & Wellbeing Board, was pleased with the recommendation to keep webcasting the Board’s meetings, adding: “I do believe that, since the pandemic, there’s a much greater public awareness about what heath and wellbeing means and its importance – a greater interest in the subject overall.”