28 July - Bexley council in HD? Horrendously Dodgy
If
you believe what Bexley council told the local press a year ago (News Shopper 27 April 2011) they plan to
webcast their meetings once the new Civic Centre opens. However if you believe
what they told John Watson of the
Bexley Council Monitoring Group they will not. I’m not sure that is bad news.
Recording would catch out the rewriters of history; mayor Alan Downing’s
pen-jabbing antics and demands to “sit down” would not so easily be labelled
neither dismissive nor arrogant.
On the other hand I would probably lazily give up taking notes at meetings
and then take twice as long to blog about meetings while rechecking every last detail.
Yesterday’s report in the Daily Telegraph offers what may be a good forecast of how
any webcasting would be received here in Bexley. A blog summarising the highlights
may make meetings appear to be more exciting than they are and a webcast
can never replace the real thing where you can in various ways express your
feelings about the charade being played out before you.
If Bexley council has changed its mind about webcasting I’m not going to get too
upset by it, it might force them to operate the microphones responsibly but you
can be sure any recording would be edited. In any case there are residents who
would happily do the job for nothing if only Bexley council would operate within
existing government guidelines.