Council agrees to record and livestream meetings

Stockton's full council meetings are now held in Dunedin House in Thornaby

Councillors have unanimously backed a proposal to record and livestream full council and cabinet meetings from their new headquarters.

Proposing the motion for Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council, Conservative councillor Niall Innes said it would "provide the greatest level of accessibility and inclusivity for residents".

"We've got two very fancy cameras that now sit here monitoring us, at a cost of over £9,000 to the taxpayer," said Innes, speaking at September's full council meeting held at Thornaby's Dunedin House.

Labour leader of the council Lisa Evans - who backed the motion - said it had always been the intention to film meetings when it came to designing the new chamber.

She said when the council had previously livestreamed meetings, the cost of bringing somebody in to film had been "quite substantial".

"Then when we looked at the figures we realised it was probably just us watching it at times," she said, adding: "That appetite has changed now."

"So when the design of this chamber came in, and for future legislation reasons as well, we did have the cameras installed and it was always our intention, so we will be supporting this motion," Evans said.

The motion was carried by a unanimous vote, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

Labour deputy council leader Paul Rowling added that further discussions were needed to ensure members of the public who attended meetings were not filmed if they did not want to be.