Derbyshire council considers live-streaming chamber meetings with its £173,000 audio-visual system

Derbyshire council’s deputy leader has highlighted the positives of the authority’s £173,000 audio-visual system in its meeting chamber, with possible future plans for live-streaming for the public and a voting system to identify how councillors are choosing to vote.

The Conservative-controlled county council was asked by opposition Labour Cllr Kevin Gillott at a Full Council meeting on March 27, if the authority thinks that having spent approximately £173,000 on improvements to the chamber’s technology at County Hall on Bank Roa, Matlock, including approximately £165,000 on the audio-visual system since 2019, has been good value for money?

Cllr Gillott’s question followed Labour-led NE Derbyshire District Council’s recent announcement that it had been necessary to spend £210,000 on audio-video equipment and furniture for its new council chamber to overcome health, safety, and technological difficulties and to provide greater public transparency.

Reflecting on the county council chamber’s former system, deputy leader Simon Spencer said: “The decision to invest in this council chamber was taken in 2019, to be precise.”

He added: “We had two people or more than two people sharing microphones and it was incredibly difficult for those with hearing difficulties because they weren’t wired properly.”

The former county council system operated with a limited number of units fixed to desks, according to Cllr Spencer, which was extremely inconvenient if there was a change of representative speaking.

But Cllr Spencer said the installation of new video display screens and sound systems has made the facilities in the council chamber, which is now used at least twice a week by various organisations, far more accessible and better.

He added: “It is not for me to judge if it’s good value for money but I can say that on usage we are making better usage of the chamber with better equipment than we used before.”

Cllr Gillott, who is also a NE Derbyshire District Councillor, argued that a lot of money had been spent on the county council chamber’s audio-visual system when he claimed the visual side has not been used to any full extent because he says there has never been any live-streaming of chamber meetings.

He also criticised the system’s voting display screens which record the number of votes for, against and in abstention but do not show the important democratic element of how individual councillors have chosen to vote.

The current county council system does include reliable audio microphones for each councillor, the chairperson, officers, and for any public spokesperson, with video display screens highlighting the names of those speaking as well as voting results indicating the number of votes for, against and in abstention on matters of note.

Cllr Spencer said the county council is currently looking at exploring and enabling greater transparency in its democratic processes by considering live-screening of future meetings.

Concerning the chamber’s voting system display, the Deputy Leader added that this would be a matter for the council chairperson, Cllr Trevor Ainsworth, to consider but Cllr Spencer also said he would look at what else the system can do and how else it can operate.

NE Derbyshire District Council’s new chamber is located in a large room at its offices on Mill Lane, Chesterfield, with plenty of well-spaced seating, and its new audio-visual technology provides good acoustics with microphones and speakers for councillors and a system that records the number of votes and the identity of voters.

The district council’s large video screens show which councillors are speaking and highlight full voting details and decisions, and allow for visual presentations, and video recordings of meetings available on YouTube.